The news conference was held after their summit in Obama’s office, the Oval Office, and official lunch in the Cabinet Room.
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South Korea relies on the United States to counter potential threats from its nuclear neighbor.
Also, the summit was seen as a watershed moment for Park and her diplomacy as she strived to reaffirm the US alliance and dispel pervasive speculation that Seoul is inclining toward Beijing.
Park lauded the recent TPP agreement during her Thursday speech. “She is straddling the fence between Beijing and Washington”.
North Korea pledged to scrap its nuclear program in return for diplomatic concessions and economic aid under a landmark 2005 nuclear deal with South Korea, the US, China, Russian Federation and Japan.
The site was suggested by North Korea and the excavation was implemented as planned despite the tensions between the two Koreas in August. That’s a good thing.
The joint statement issued by the allies underscored “our commitment to our common goal, shared by the global community, to achieve the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea in a peaceful manner. The Korean people, at long last, will be whole and free”. Though she did not mention her strategy with China in detail, she alluded to the “complex and multidimensional” challenges in a world in which “the line between geopolitics and geoeconomics has become blurred”.
President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama held a summit last week and pledged to work with the worldwide community to improve North Korea’s human rights record and ensure accountability for human rights violations.
Park stood between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the autocratic leader of Kazakhstan as Chinese tanks and mobile missiles that are rattling the nerves of a few of China’s Asian nations trundled past.
From trade deals to climate change and cultural exchange, there are a host of issues that will be on the table during Friday’s summit. Deputy national security adviser Benjamin Rhodes leaves Washington on Friday for meetings in Laos, which assumes leadership next year of a Southeast Asia forum, and Burma, also known as Myanmar. There are reports that North Korea may be planning another rocket launch or a nuclear bomb test, both in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
The South Korean president agreed – on the same condition that North Korea was serious about giving up nuclear ambitions.
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“I came here to convey South Koreans’ mind that (we) will not forget those who helped us when we were in trouble”, Park told a group of surviving veterans and family members of those who served in the Korean War after laying a wreath at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. “It will be an important occasion to pursue peace and stability in northeast Asia, as well as to improve Korea-Japan relations”. “And where they fail to do so, we expect the Republic of Korea to speak out on that, just as we do”, he said.
