China next up on Bush's diplomatic itinerary

President Bush is expected to raise human rights concerns during talks with Chinese leaders

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Embarking on another sensitive diplomatic journey, President Bush has arrived in China for a 30-hour stay before concluding a six-day trip to east Asia.

Bush's trip comes 30 years after President Nixon's historic visit to China. It also occurs at a time when Washington's prestige and influence in the region is at its highest point since the Vietnam era, U.S. officials said.

Nevertheless, major sources of conflict remain between the countries. Bush, for example, is expected to raise concerns over human rights and religious freedom in China. The Chinese are said by sources to be unhappy with Bush's comments in Japan emphasizing Washington's "commitment to the people of Taiwan."

Yet Bush is also expected to highlight progress in U.S. relations with China, including intelligence sharing and other cooperation in the war against terrorism. He also will praise China's decision to press ahead with entrance into the World Trade Organization, according to a senior U.S. official.

VIDEO Security on the Korean peninsula was the top issue in the meeting between President Bush and South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) President Bush's stance toward North Korea has many South Koreans concerned. CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae reports. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   EXTRA INFORMATION In-Depth: President Bush: East Asia Tour

The Bush visit comes ahead of the 16th Communist Party Congress in October at which Vice President Hu Jintao is widely expected to succeed President Jiang Zemin. A senior U.S. official involved in the trip planning said that it was a "strong possibility" Bush would meet with Hu in addition to summit deliberations with Jiang.

Bring the Koreas closer

As he wrapped up his trip to South Korea, Bush assured his hosts that he supported diplomatic efforts to bring North and South Korea closer.

While offering unconditional talks with Pyongyang and eschewing any intention to invade North Korea, Bush challenged North Korean leader Kim Jong-il by calling for freedom and openness.

"Certainly Bush and President Kim Dae-jung want to have dialogue with North Korea as soon as possible, so chances are open to North Korea any time," Yu Suk-ryul, professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, told Reuters news agency.

"But North Korea knows what the U.S. wants to talk about, and they cannot solve those problems through dialogue at this moment," he said.

The Bush administration's proposal for talks would include discussion of Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs as well as the conventional threat from the world's fourth largest army, much of it deployed near the militarized border with the South.

Analyst Paik Jin-hyun said Bush's expression of sympathy for the North Korean people's lack of food and freedom would be especially troubling for the Communist leadership.

"Bush's saying he differentiates the North Korean regime from the North Korean people will really scare North Korea," said Paik, a North Korea expert at Seoul National University.

'Axes' of evil at the DMZ

Bush carefully avoided the phrase "axis of evil," which he first used to characterize North Korea, Iran and Iraq in last month's State of the Union address.

Kim sought clarification from Bush on his rhetoric early Wednesday in a meeting at Blue House, the South Korean presidential residence.

The Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas is one of the most heavily fortified border regions in the world.

Kim told reporters afterward that he remains committed to his long-standing policy of engagement with the Communist North and that the United States also is committed to his "sunshine policy."

Bush said he welcomed the North to talk but "so far there has been no response."

"Some in this country obviously have read about my very strong comments about the nature of the regime," he said. "And let me explain why I made the comments I did. I love freedom. I understand the importance of freedom in peoples' lives.

"I am troubled by a regime that tolerates starvation. I worry about a regime that is closed and not transparent," he said.

But Bush did comment about some "axes" of evil while at the DMZ -- the Demilitarized Zone -- between the two Koreas.

Visible from the bunker where he stood, a North Korean "peace museum" sits across the border. The museum displays axes used by North Korean soldiers to attack a U.S. tree-trimming crew in 1976. Two Americans died.

"The axes that were used to slaughter two U.S. soldiers are in the peace museum," Bush said. "No wonder I think they're evil."

Uniting Korean families

Later Wednesday, in a speech delivered from the Dorasan train station, the last South Korean stop on a railway line severed since the 1950-53 Korean War, Bush said he hopes to see a Korean peninsula "one day united in commerce and cooperation, instead of divided by barbed wire and fear."

"People on both sides of this border want to live in freedom and dignity, without the threat of violence and famine and war," he said. "I hope that one day soon this hope will be realized. And when the day comes, all the people of Korea will find in America a strong and willing friend."

But he added, "We must not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most dangerous weapons."

Bush said the South Korean president had taken him to a road he built that "abruptly ends" at the DMZ -- what Bush described as a reminder "of the challenges to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula."

"That road has the potential to bring the peoples on both sides of this divided land together. And for the good of all the Korean people, the North should finish it," Bush said.

"Traveling south on that road, the people of the North would see, not a threat, but a miracle of peaceful development -- Asia's third-largest economy, risen from the ruins of war."

Before his address, Bush signed one of the ties to the unfinished railroad, with the message, "May this railroad unite Korean families."

Seoul reopened its portion of the rail line last week and has urged the North to do the same.

Bush got a firsthand glimpse of the North when he toured Camp Bonifas in the DMZ and ate lunch with U.S. troops Wednesday.

Afterward, as reporters were escorted under heavy security to the newly rebuilt station -- 500 meters south of the southern boundary of the heavily fortified DMZ -- South Korean troops could be seen patrolling the nearby fields.

U.S. Lt. Charles Levine said the security situation is "no joke," with some of North Korea's million man army, weapons and equipment just across the demilitarized zone.

"Twenty-four hours a day, we are on the highest alert," Levine said.