Politics
Obama in S. Korea: will confront N. Korea nuclear threat
U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean president Lee Myung-bak address a joint press conference in Seoul, South Korea PHOTO/Lee Yong-ho/ Pool/Epa
President Barack Obama is opening his pitch for faster work to lock down nuclear material that could be used by terrorists with an up-close look at the nuclear front lines along the heavily militarized border with volatile North Korea.
Obama arrived in Seoul on Sunday morning, local time, for three days of diplomacy. In the midst of an election year focused on economic concerns at home, Obama has designed a rare Asia visit that features time in just one country. He’ll use much of the time to keep pressure on North Korea to back off a planned rocket launch and return to disarmament talks.
The goal of the large gathering of world leaders is to secure nuclear material and prevent it from being smuggled to states or groups intent on mass destruction. Progress has been uneven since the ambitious goal of lockdown by 2014 was first set out by Obama at a similar session in Washington in 2010. No breakthroughs are expected now.
Right across the border but not participating: nuclear North Korea, labeled by the White House as “the odd man out.” It is brinksmanship with North Korea and Iran, another nation not invited to the summit, that has dominated much of the nuclear debate and that will cast an unquestionable shadow over talks in Seoul.
Obama has called nuclear terrorism the gravest threat the United States and the world may face. North Korea is a prime suspect in the proliferation of some nuclear know-how, along with missiles that could be used to deliver weapons of mass destruction. Iran is suspected in the arming of terrorists with non-nuclear weaponry, and the U.S. and other nations suspect Iran’s nuclear energy program could be converted to build a bomb.
Syria, Pakistan and other global trouble spots are also on the agenda for separate meetings with global leaders attending a progress-check summit of more than 50 nations on Obama’s goal of locking down nuclear material around the world by 2014.
Obama’s first business: a visit to the volatile Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea, a show of strength amid confusion and disappointment over the state of diplomacy with the nuclear-armed North.
