Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Town Hall Meeting at Ewha Women's University
Seoul, South Korea
February 20, 2009
SECRETARY CLINTON: Good
afternoon. (cheers and applause) Thank you so much, President Lee. I am
honored to be here at this great university. I wish to thank also
Chairperson (inaudible) and the more than 107,000 alumni at this great
school. Standing up with me was our Ambassador Kathy Stephens, who has
told me that more than 50 graduates of Ewha Womans University work at
U.S. Embassy Seoul. We are extremely proud of the education they have
received here.
It is a great privilege to stand here before
you on the stage of the largest women’s university in the world. And I
came to – (applause) – this university as a matter of destiny, because
you see, Ewha and I share a connection. (Cheers and applause.) I am a
Methodist, my family on my father’s side comes from Scranton,
Pennsylvania – (applause) – and I must say that Wellesley College is a
sister college for Ewha University. (Applause.) So being an honorary
fellow seems right at home today.
I also note that in this
audience are some Korean-American friends from New York and California.
There are several Wellesley graduates whom I met backstage as well –
(applause) – and an extraordinary number of talented young women,
faculty members, and administrators.
Learning about this
great university and the role that you have played in advancing the
status of women made me think about so many of the women throughout
history who are inspirations to me: Madame Scranton, someone who
started teaching one young woman, and from her dedication and hard work
came this university; Eleanor Roosevelt, a pioneering First Lady of the
United States and a voice for democracy around the world, and one of
the driving forces behind the United Nations Declaration on Human
Rights. Now, that was more than 50 years ago, but just a few weeks ago,
one of Korea’s most accomplished leaders, United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, called on all nations worldwide to push for more
progress on women’s equality. And I want to thank the Secretary General
– (applause) – because he said that women’s empowerment is the key to
progress in developing nations.
People who think hard about
our future come to the same conclusion, that women and others on
society’s margins must be afforded the right to fully participate in
society, not only because it is morally right, but because it is
necessary to strengthen our security and prosperity.
Before I
came out on stage, I met a number of young women who are in political
office here in the Republic of Korea, and I hope I was looking at a
future president of this great nation. (Applause.)
As you
think about your own futures, keeping in mind security and prosperity
and the role that each of us must play, is essential because of the
urgent global challenges we face in the 21st century. We need all of
our people’s talents to be on the very forefront of setting a course of
peace, progress, and prosperity; be it defending our nations from the
threat of nuclear proliferation and terror, or resolving the global
climate crisis or the current economic crisis, and promoting civil
society, especially women’s rights and education, healthcare, clean
energy, good governance, the rule of law, and free and fair elections.
All of these matters speak to our common desire to make a nation that
is safe and strong and secure.
More than half a century
ago, this university became the first to prepare women for professions
that were formerly reserved for men, including medicine, law, science,
and journalism. At about the same time, your government wrote women’s
equality into your constitution and guaranteed protections for women in
employment. And there have been other rights and protections for women
encoded in Korean law in subsequent decades.
These advances
coincided with Korea’s transformation from an undeveloped nation to a
dynamic democracy, a global economic power, and a hub of technology and
innovation. The inclusion of women in the political and economic
equation, calling on those talents and contributions from the entire
population, not just the male half, was essential to the progress that
this country has made.
As I have been on this first trip as
Secretary of State, I have visited Japan and Indonesia, and tomorrow I
will be in China. I was very impressed by my visit to Indonesia, a
young democracy that is demonstrating to the world that democracy,
Islam, modernity, and women’s rights can coexist. I met elected women
officials. I met high appointed members in the foreign ministry and
other cabinet positions in the government. It would be hard to imagine
the progress that Indonesia has made in the last ten years, moving from
a stagnant autocracy to a burgeoning democracy, without women being
part of the reason.
And on Sunday, I’ll meet with women in
China to hear about their efforts to improve opportunities for
themselves in their own country, another reason why women have to lead
the way if there’s going to be higher standards of living, a healthier
population, and an actively engaged citizenry.
But no country
has yet achieved full equality for women. We still have work to do,
don’t we? And just a few weeks ago, President Obama signed into law a
new provision protecting women from salary discrimination, a step that
was overdue. So there is a lot ahead of us to ensure that gender
equality, as President Lee mentioned, becomes a reality. And we also
need to remain vigilant against a backlash that tries to turn the clock
back on women and human rights, countries where leaders are threatened
by the idea of freedom and democracy and women are made the scapegoats.
The abuses of women under the Taliban are horrific reminders that just
as women had been central to progress in countries like ours, the
reverse can happen as well.
Some of you may have seen the
news reports some weeks ago of young girls in Afghanistan who were so
eager to go to school, and every day they went off with a real light in
their eyes because they were finally able to learn.
And one day, a
group of these young girls were assaulted by a group of Taliban men who
threw acid on them because they had the desire to learn. We have to
remain vigilant on behalf of women’s rights.
We see this
kind of suppression in different forms in different places. In Burma,
the valor of Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her
courageous struggle for freedom of expression and conscience. To the
North, 70 percent of those leaving North Korea in search of a better
life are women, a sad commentary on the conditions in their own country.
So
part of my message during this trip and part of my mission as Secretary
of State is that the United States is committed to advancing the rights
of women to lead more equitable, prosperous lives in safe societies. I
view this not only as a moral issue, but as a security issue. I think
that it’s imperative that nations like ours stand up for the rights of
women. It is not ancillary to our progress; it is central.
In
1995, when I went to the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing
and said that women’s rights were human rights, and human rights were
women’s rights, people were so excited. But that to me was almost a sad
commentary that we had to say something so obvious toward the end of
the [twentieth] century.
So here we are in the [twenty-first] century, and every day we make progress, but we can’t be complacent. We
have to highlight the importance of inclusion for women. We have to
make clear that no democracy can exist without women’s full
participation; no economy can be truly a free market without women
involved.
I want to use robust diplomacy and development to
strengthen our partnerships with other governments and create
collaborative networks of people and nongovernmental organizations to
find innovative solutions to global problems – what we call smart
power.
Today, I’ve come to this great women’s university to
hear your thoughts about the future. The other night in Tokyo, I had
the privilege to listen to students at Tokyo University, and I came
away not only impressed by their intelligence and the quality of their
questions, but encouraged by their concern about the future that lay
ahead and what each of them wanted to do to make it better.
Today,
I’ve held bilateral meetings with your president, your prime minister,
and your foreign minister. We have discussed issues like the need to
continue the Six-Party Talks to bring about the complete and verifiable
denuclearization in North Korea, and how we can better coordinate not
only between ourselves, but regionally and globally, on the range of
issues that confront us. But in each meeting, we took time to reflect
about how far this country has come.
Back in the early 1960s,
there were a series of studies done where different groups were looking
at nations around the world, trying to calculate which ones would be
successful at the end of the 20th century. And many commentators and
analysts thought that the chances for the Republic of Korea were
limited. But that wasn’t the opinion of the people of Korea. And so for
50 years, you have built a nation that is now assuming a place of
leadership in the world, respected for the vibrant democracy, for the
advances across the board in every walk of life. And it is a tribute to
your understanding of what it takes to make progress at a time of peril
and uncertainty.
The relationship between the United States
and Korea is deep and enduring, and it is indispensible to our shared
security. Without security, children can’t even imagine their futures
and may not have the potential to actually live up to their talents.
Our two countries have joined together as a force for peace,
prosperity, and progress. Korean and American soldiers have served
shoulder-to-shoulder in so many places around the world.
We
know that the most acute challenge to stability and security in
Northeast Asia is the regime in North Korea, and particularly its
nuclear program. It bears repeating that President Obama and I are
committed to working through the Six-Party Talks. We believe we have an
opportunity to move those forward and that it is incumbent upon North
Korea to avoid provocative actions and unhelpful rhetoric toward the
people and the leaders of the Republic of Korea. Remember that the
North Korean Government committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and
returning at an early date to the Treaty of Nonproliferation of Nuclear
Weapons.
And I make the offer again right here in Seoul: If
North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably
eliminate their nuclear weapons program, the Obama Administration will
be willing to normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula’s
longstanding armistice agreement with a permanent peace treaty, and
assist in meeting the energy and other economic and humanitarian needs
of the Korean people.
Also essential to our shared security
and prosperity is a resolution to the global economic crisis. Korea and
the United States have both benefited from a strong economic
relationship, and your leaders and I today discussed ways we can
develop that relationship further. We are going to work on a vision of
a much more comprehensive strategic relationship. We want more
partnerships to bring not just government leaders together, but
business and professional and academic and political and
people-to-people. We want to work with Korea so that both of us will be
leaders in getting at the root causes of global climate change and
vigorously pursuing a clean energy agenda. And I applaud your country
for being a global leader in this area, and for calling on the
ingenuity and skills of the Korean people to promote green technologies
that will create jobs and protect our planet and enhance our security.
Students
here at Ewha have a long and proud tradition of engagement with the
world. And you have the talent and the training to help shape that
world. It may not be always obvious what you can do to make a
difference, so do what you love. Do what gives you meaning. Do what
makes life purposeful for you. And make a contribution.
I
don’t know that Mary Scranton, who founded this university teaching one
student in her home, could have ever dreamed of where we would be
today. But that’s often the way life is. I never could have dreamed
that I could be here as the Secretary of State of the United States
either. (Applause.) You have to be willing to prepare yourselves and as
you are doing to take advantage of the opportunities that arise, to
find cooperative ways to work with others to promote the common good,
and then follow your dreams. You may not end up exactly where you
started out heading toward, but with your education and with the
opportunities now available in your country, there is so much that you
can do. And I know that you will be well-equipped to make your
contribution that will contribute to the peace and prosperity and
progress and security, not only of Korea, but of the region and the
world that needs and is waiting for your talents.
Thank you all and God bless you. (Applause.)
And now we’re going to have some questions, I think, right? (Laughter.)
