US, South Korea Offer Terms for Dialogue With Pyongyang

She also said an upcoming three-way summit of Northeast Asia’s leading powers might be an opportunity for a formal meeting with Mr. Abe.

President Park Geun-hye spoke ahead of a White House meeting Friday with President Barack Obama, who is keen for America’s two key Asian allies to overcome bitter differences over Japanese abuses during World War II. After her meeting with Obama, Park said she wants better relations with China, especially when it comes to dealing with North Korea. The two nations must exert leadership in inducing the North to abandon its nuclear development, undertake internal reform and open up to the world, Park said Thursday in a speech at the Center for Strategic and worldwide Studies, a Washington think-tank.

“It’s time to immediately reverse course and begin applying more pressure to the North Korean regime”, Gardner said at a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee’s hearingearlier this month.

“We want South Korea to have a strong relationship with China; just as we want to have a strong relationship with China”, Obama continued.

“At the point where Pyongyang says we’re interested in seeing relief from sanctions and improved relations and we’re prepared to have a serious conversation”, Obama noted, suggesting that the USA position on talks with North Korea may have softened from the earlier USA position that North Korea would have to take action to demonstrate a bona fide interest in diplomacy. He said there was no indication of that in North Korea’s case.

Officials say Obama and Park Geun-hye will stress cooperation on a range of global issues from health to cyber security, as well as collaboration on an unmanned mission to the moon.

Obama has urged Japan and South Korea, both US allies, to mend fences for the sake of regional stability. The October. 10 party anniversary, however, passed without a long-range rocket launch or nuclear test. Iran has struck a nuclear agreement.

Park said it was important to have concerted global efforts toward a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue and said she had agreed with Obama on the need to strengthen diplomatic efforts.

They also warned Pyongyang, saying it would face consequences as well as sanctions if it carries out missile or nuclear tests, while also opening doors for dialogue and assistance on the condition of it dropping its nuclear ambitions.

Park has cultivated closer relations with China as she looks to coax Beijing away from its traditional embrace of Pyongyang.

“As of the seventh excavation, we have excavated the sites of six stairwells, a well, a drainage facility and numerous kinds of ceramics, including a kind never seen before”, said Son Soo Ho, chief of the Institute of Archeology at the North’s Social Science Institute, according to a transcript obtained by NK News.

The summit dispelled worries among a few critics that Seoul may be tilted toward China as Park attended the massive military parade in Beijing last month, widely seen as a show of force amid the growing rivalry between the USA and China.

On the eve of the much-anticipated summit, South Korea’s commander-in-chief received a full military honors parade hosted by Secretary of Defence Ash Carter.