While there were no provocations, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced at a mass rally that his country is prepared to go to war against the USA and called the North “an impenetrable fortress and a global military power”, The Associated Press reported.
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The October 20-26 reunion in North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort is only the second in five years and, ever since it was agreed in August, has been dogged by concerns that Pyongyang might find cause to cancel.
Park is scheduled to meet with Obama in Washington on Friday, a day after visiting the U.S. Defense Department, according to the office.
The Mount Kumgang resort – developed by South Korea’s giant Hyundai Group – was once a symbol of inter-Korea reconciliation, hosting thousands of South Korean tourists allowed to travel under the “Sunshine Policy” of engagement pioneered by then president Kim Dae-Jung in the late 1990s.
The ministry said in May that it will promote more civilian inter-Korean exchanges as this year marks the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. Following North Korea’s third nuclear test in 2013, Beijing joined in United Nations sanctions imposed against Pyongyang. China is South Korea’s biggest trading partner.
The December 1950 operation, known as the “Heungnam evacuation”, took place as the U.S.-backed South Korean forces began retreating from North Korea after China sent a massive number of troops to fight alongside the communist neighbor. In the interim, the two Koreas threatened each other with war after two South Korean soldiers were wounded by land mines Seoul says were planted by the North. The tensions have since eased.
But the allies will be tiptoeing around a key decision about how to defend against the North’s weapons of mass destruction.
“Publicly, I think what would be very important for President Park is to explain a vision of the future of Asia that shows what we all know, that Korea is committed to an open order based on the rule of law and democracy and no coercion”, he said. The house, composed of four connected townhomes with more than 120 rooms, usually accommodates leaders on state visits to the U.S. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was on his first state visit to the US last month, also stayed at the house.
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Asked if the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system may be discussed at the summit, Lippert said it is “highly unlikely”.
