Carter Reaffirms Alliance as South Korean President, Defense Minister Visit

Vice President Joe Biden greets South Korean President Park Geun-hye as she arrives for lunch at the Naval Observatory, Thursday, October 15, 2015, in Washington.

During a March speech in Seoul, Mr. Hill said he did not know when or how the demise of the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will come about, but he believed it would ultimately occur, and when it does, “we need to make sure that China, [South Korea] and the USA all understand what we’re going to do”.

She is set to hold a summit with her United States counterpart Barack Obama on Friday to discuss ways to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambition and to bolster the alliance to a higher level. She oversees a nation of 50 million that sports the world’s 13th largest economy; relies on 28,000 USA troops; and shares a peninsula with North Korea, which is estimated to possess sufficient fissile material to produce 22 nuclear weapons.

When I attended President Park’s inauguration in 2013, I stated that I had “every confidence that she would carry South Korea’s success and the relationship with the United States to new heights”.

Park said only 47 such women in South Korea remain alive and majority were almost in their 90s, referring to data on 238 women recognized by the South Korean government as former “comfort women”, as they are euphemistically called in Japan.

“So there’s no contradiction between the Republican of Korea having good relations with us, being a central part of our alliance and having good relations with China”, he said.

– Iran has often violated rules on missile testing, but said the recent agreement with the U.S.is designed only to keep Tehran from development a nuclear weapon; the USA and allies will continue to pressure Iran over missile testing and other bad behaviors.

The United States and South Korea have issued a joint statement pledging to strengthen coordination with China to bring North Korea back to the bargaining table regarding its nuclear program. The North Korean military threat overshadows another tragedy on the Korean Peninsula: the plight of the North Korean people. The USA already has a separate free trade agreement with South Korea, but Park has hinted that her country may be willing to join the TPP.

Park told a Washington think tank that in early November, Seoul will host a summit between the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China – the first such meeting in three and a half years.

Yet Park also stated that stronger cooperation among the USA, South Korea and China would be necessary to deal with the threat presented by North Korea. The visit marks the South Korean leader’s second visit to Washington since becoming president in 2013.

Park’s visit follows heightened tensions this summer at the heavily militarized border between the two Koreas, and speculation that North Korea could be planning another nuclear test explosion or a rocket launch into space using ballistic missile technology.

The Obama administration and lawmakers are looking to South Korea to help thwart Pyongyang’s attempts to transition from digital vandal to digital warrior.