Politics
Obama in S. Korea: will confront N. Korea nuclear threat
The symbolic visit to the border separating the Korean peninsula will be the fourth by a U.S. president. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all visited the DMZ; other U.S. officials regularly go there.
The border zone is a Cold War anachronism, a legacy of the uncertain armistice that ended the Korean War nearly 60 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of troops stand ready on both sides of the border zone, which is littered with land mines and encased in razor wire. Obama officials said the goal is to thank U.S. and South Korean military members and show U.S. resolve from “the front line of democracy” on the peninsula.
The United States has more than 28,000 troops in South Korea.
North Korea plans to launch a satellite using a long-range rocket next month, which the U.S. and other powers say would violate a U.N. ban on nuclear and missile activity because the same technology could be used for long-range missiles. Taken by surprise, the U.S. warned that a deal to resume stalled food aid to the North could be jeopardized if North Korea goes ahead.
The U.S. considers the rocket launch practice for a ballistic missile test and a violation of North Korea’s international responsibilities. The planned launch appears to be part of a long pattern of steps forward, then back in U.S. dealings with North Korea, and plays into Republican claims that Obama is being played for the fool.
Campaign politics surrounding a sitting president typically subside when he is abroad, although Obama’s posture toward threats to America will be scrutinized by his rivals.
The timing comes as daily economic worries, not foreign ones, are driving the concerns of American voters. Yet the setting does give Obama a few days to hold forth on the world stage while, back home, Republican presidential candidates keep battling each other.
Halfway into the four-year effort to safeguard nuclear materials from terrorists, many nations have taken voluntary steps to corral material that could be used for terrorist weapons. But they have sidestepped larger questions about how to track all such material, measure compliance and enforce security.
