NKorea to top agenda as Obama meets SKorean leader

Seoul and Washington view a satellite launch as a cover for testing the North’s ballistic missile technology, which is banned under United Nations resolutions.

After Friday’s summit in Washington between the leaders of South Korea and the USA, they issued a joint statement on the North.

“We haven’t even gotten to that point yet because there’s been no indication on the part of the North Koreans, as there was with Iranians, that they could foresee a future where they did not possess or they were not pursing nuclear weapons”.

North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005, and conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

“Obviously, given the size of China right there on your doorstep, if they are able to act with impunity and ignore rules whenever they want, that’s not going to be good for you – whether that’s on economic issues or security issues”, he said.

“Kim Jong-Un’s missile program achieved nothing except to deepen North Korea’s isolation”, Obama said.

Ms Park added that the two sides would “open new frontiers of cooperation” in health security, cyber security and space exploration.

He made the remarks after his meeting with Park at the White House during which he hailed Washington-Seoul alliance as the “lynchpin” of security on the Korean Peninsula.

In addition to a bi-lateral meeting in the Oval Office, Obama and Vice President Biden will host a working lunch for Park.

Through the agreement reached with Obama, Park is expected to gain fresh momentum to push her North Korean agenda at a time when the two Koreas have revived high-level talks and are readying to hold a reunion of separated families next week.

The visit to the Pentagon was seen as a strong symbol of the close ties between the us and South Korea. Her language may rankle a little with Japan, which is also a critical USA ally in the region, hosting almost 50,000 American troops.

South Korea and Japan have a historically strained relationship that has been further handicapped by echoes of World War II, including the use of Korean women in Japanese military brothels. “The trilateral meeting allows us to hold in-depth talks not only with China but also with Japan”, Park noted on Thursday.

“It will be an important occasion to pursue peace and stability in northeast Asia, as well as to improve Korea-Japan relations”, she said.

“Sometimes there’s a perception that if President Park meets with President Xi (Jinping) that causes a problem for us”, Obama said in an East Room press conference.

Obama said the United States wants South Korea to have a strong relationship with China, just as it too wants to have a strong relationship with China.

The two leaders also addressed the issue of North Korea provocations, condemning Pyongyang’s nuclear pursuits as the “biggest threat to the Korean peninsula”, while insisting on the importance of “strengthening diplomatic efforts” with members of the six-party talks that focused on North Korea denuclearization.