WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) — U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Washington and Seoul are taking steps toward a comprehensive global alliance while remaining rooted in security ties that recognize North Korea’s nuclear provocations as the “biggest threat to the Korean peninsula.”
“I want to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to the defense and security of the Republic of Korea will never waver,” President Obama said at a joint press conference at the White House on Friday. “Our alliance remains a linchpin of peace and security not just on the Korean peninsula but across the region.”
President Park said she and Obama have made significant progress on “sensitive” issues, including the revision of a preexisting nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries that allow for the peaceful use of commercial nuclear energy, and working out the details of the transfer of wartime control to South Korea.
In December, Seoul and Washington agreed to postpone the transfer of wartime operational control, or OPCON, to South Korea after Seoul requested postponement several times, beginning in 2007. In August, an unidentified South Korean military official told Seoul press South Korea’s OPCON over allied forces would be postponed to 2020, but South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo has declined to comment on the report, and on Friday neither Park nor Obama gave further details on the transfer.
The two leaders also addressed the issue of North Korea provocations, condemning Pyongyang’s nuclear pursuits as the “biggest threat to the Korean peninsula,” while insisting on the importance of “strengthening diplomatic efforts” with members of the six-party talks that focused on North Korea denuclearization.
With regard to the issue, President Obama said when Pyongyang shows interest in “seeing relief from sanctions, improved relations… it would be fair to say we’d be right there at the table” for negotiations.
President Park said diplomacy is key to resolving the North Korea nuclear problem, “on the basis of Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation, and with strengthened coordination among the five parties, while Korea and the United States [remain] in deeper consultations with other countries, including China.”
Park’s overture to Asia’s largest economy had been a cause for concern among U.S. officials who worried Park was steering South Korea toward closer relations with China, while moving away from the existing security alliance with Japan and the United States.
On Friday, President Obama addressed those concerns directly and Park said the meeting with President Xi Jinping in September stepped up efforts to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue.
“I don’t see any cracks in the [U.S.-South Korean] relationship at all. It’s stronger than it’s ever been,” Obama said. “Sometimes there’s a perception that if President Park meets with President Xi then that must cause problems.
“We want South Korea to have a strong relationship with China just as we want to have a strong relationship China,” Obama said, after reminding reporters, “[After all,] President Xi was in this room, eating my food.”
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