In the summit talk they both promised that they would deal with the North Korean problem as fast as possible. The country recently got a few of its sanctions removed, despite testing a ballistic missile a week ago.
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In addition to North Korea nuclear ambitions, Obama said that he and Park discussedtrade, climate change, the global fight against the Islamic State and mutual efforts on cyber-security.
For Park, however, the everpresent threat to South Korea posed by the North has prompted her to pursue closer ties with Xi in hopes of leveraging Beijing’s influence over Pyongyang. The South Korean president added that reunification is someone no one could predict. “We were prepared to have a serious conversation with Iranians once they showed they were serious about the possibility of giving up the pursuit of nuclear weapons”.
“Today, President Park and I are reaffirming our nations will never accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state”.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye has expressed willingness to improve ties with Japan through a three-way summit involving China that is planned for early next month. Park arrived in the United States on Tuesday for a four-day visit with an extensive agenda covering bilateral defense, economic, and political cooperation with the United States, South Korea’s most important ally.
Park’s appearance along with Vladimir Putin in the guest box of Chinese President Xi Jinping at an event skipped by top US and Japanese officials raised eyebrows in Washington and Tokyo at a time of growing worries in Asia about China’s expanding role in the region and the world.
“So there’s no contradiction between the Republic of Korea having good relations with us, being a central part of our alliance, and having good a relationship with China”, Obama said.
Obama said that the U.S. is ready to “engage nations with which we have had troubled histories”.
At a joint press conference after the US-South Korea summit talks, Park stressed that she will use the Japan-China-South Korea summit meeting as an opportunity in her efforts to improve Japan-South Korea relations.
Before meeting Obama, Park sat down with Vice President Joe Biden at his residence on Thursday for a luncheon. Neither China nor South Korea has been involved so far.
President Obama, meanwhile, is expected to highlight Ms. Park’s visit as an example of how the alliance with Seoul reaches well beyond the security realm.
“North Korea has to come to its own conclusion that it is genuinely willing to give up nuclear capabilities and become a full-fledged member of global society”, she added. “If the US insists on its hostile policy, it will only see the DPRK’s limitless bolstering of nuclear deterrence and the growth of its revolutionary armed forces”.
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“A unified Korea will be a generator of peace”.
