Park’s visit had been postponed in early June due to the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea, and in September Park had joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Sept. 3 Victory Day parade in Beijing.
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In his meetings with Park and Han, Carter strongly reassured both leaders of the ironclad US commitment to South Korea’s defense, the statement said. And especially now, in light of the North’s continued course of nuclear weapons development.
Next week’s event is the result of an agreement the two Koreas reached in August to de-escalate tensions that had pushed them to the brink of armed conflict. China, however, likely views the South Korean outreach differently: as an opportunity to pull Seoul away from the USA alliance network in Northeast Asia.
“We will maintain our robust deterrence posture and continue to modernize our alliance and enhance our close collaboration to better respond to all forms of North Korean provocations”.
Park has so far declined to agree to South Korea hosting a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antiballistic missile system for the US.
Park elaborated with an adage: You can take a horse to the trough, but you can’t make it drink water. South Korea says Japan has not achieved sufficient to atone for their struggling regardless of a 1993 apology.
“We want South Korea to have a strong relationship with China, just as we want to have a strong relationship with China”.
She called the South Korea-U.S. alliance “the strongest alliance” in the world and said the two sides will become global partners upholding their common values and ideal. Unfortunately normal relations between the two contain many challenges; there continue to be differences in the way they look at the past.
It is Park’s second visit to Washington since assuming power in 2013, coming roughly one month after a high profile visit to Beijing for 70th anniversary of the end of World War II celebrations.
The South Koreans have gotten back to the starting line by dropping the comfort women issue as a precondition for a normal relationship with Japan. But, he added: “It’s clear to us she made good use of her visit to push forward her agenda on North Korea”.
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This would be the first official one-to-one between Abe and Park. Park appears to be following in her father’s shadow during the tour.
