PANMUNJOM, South Korea ? Squinting through binoculars from a forward observation post here, President Obama peered into North Korea on Sunday, getting a firsthand look at the secretive nuclear nation that has been a source of recurring angst for his administration.
On the far side of the demilitarized zone, beyond the grim watchtowers and concertina wire that separates North from South, a giant red-and-blue North Korean flag billowed at half-mast, marking the 100th day since the death of the country?s cultlike leader, Kim Jong- il.
It was Mr. Obama?s first visit to this heavily fortified border ? Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan all made the trip ? and it seemed both an echo of the cold war and a testament to new dangers in an age of nuclear proliferation.
The president arrived in Seoul earlier on Sunday to take part in a nuclear security summit meeting organized by South Korea. The meeting is devoted to preventing nuclear weapons and fuel from falling into the hands of terrorists, though the ambitions of nuclear states like North Korea and Iran were likely to dominate the discussions.
Already, North Korea?s announcement of plans to launch a satellite mounted on a long-range missile upended a fragile American diplomatic opening to Kim Jong-il?s son and successor, Kim Jong-un. Analysts say North Korea appears to be reverting to a familiar cycle of provocations, as an untested leader consolidates his grip on power in Pyongyang.
Later at a news conference in Seoul, Mr. Obama warned North Korea that it risked increasing its isolation if it went ahead with the rocket launch. The launch would be a breach of Pyongyang?s international obligations, the president said, and would lead Washington to scrap a recent agreement to supply North Korea with desperately needed food aid in return for preliminary talks over its nuclear program.
?Bad behavior will not be rewarded,? Mr. Obama said. ?There had been a pattern, I think, for decades in which North Korea thought if they had acted provocatively, then somehow they would be bribed into ceasing and desisting acting provocatively.?
He also said that the political situation in North Korea still appeared to be ?unsettled,? adding that he had been unable to fully assess Mr. Kim.
?It?s not clear exactly who is calling the shots and what their long-term objectives are,? he said of North Korean leaders.
With Mr. Obama was South Korea?s president, Lee Myung-bak, who is playing host to more than 50 world leaders at the nuclear security summit meeting. Mr. Obama proposed the idea in 2009 of a biannual global meeting to discuss ways to prevent nuclear material from falling into the hands of terrorists.
North Korea?s plan for a rocket launch was a ?disappointment,? Mr Lee said, adding that he had hoped that the younger Mr. Kim would take a different approach than his father.
Mr. Obama, who plans to meet with President Hu Jintao of China on Monday, said Beijing?s efforts to control North Korea?s provocations over the years had failed, and he urged Chinese leaders to be more forceful. ?My suggestion to China is that how they communicate their concerns to North Korea should probably reflect the fact that the approach they have taken over the last several decades has not led to a fundamental shift in North Korea?s behavior,? he said.
During his visit to the demilitarized zone, the president paid tribute to the soldiers who have patrolled this frontier, saying they made it possible for South Korea to grow into a thriving democracy and market economy despite the constant threat of war from the North.
?You guys are at freedom?s frontier,? the president said to American troops in a dining hall at Camp Bonifas, the outpost of the United Nations command that oversees the zone.
?The contrast between South Korea and North Korea could not be clearer, could not be starker, both in terms of freedom but also in terms of prosperity,? Mr. Obama said while at the border. That success is due to the resilience of its people, he said, ?but it also has to do with you guys.?
There was time for levity, too. Mr. Obama thanked the soldiers for giving him a ?spiffy jacket? and drew laughs when he talked about how a string of upsets in the N.C.A.A. men?s college basketball tournament were making a mess of the brackets chosen by people.
The president then greeted eight South Korean soldiers who keep watch at Observation Post Ouellette, one of the forward-most posts. As they waited for Mr. Obama to arrive, in a room with tightly drawn curtains and posters for target practice, the soldiers rehearsed their handshakes and barked greetings: ?Very nice to meet you, sir.?
The pleasantries completed, Mr. Obama stepped out into a chilly, windswept bunker, ringed by sandbags and camouflage burlap and shielded by a wall of two-inch-thick bulletproof glass, where he was handed binoculars to survey the bleak North Korea countryside.
As a military escort pointed out landmarks, Mr. Obama could be heard asking where the line of demarcation was between the North and South in different directions, as well as the size of the nearby North Korean village, where the giant flag was flying.
Although the visit went smoothly, American officials warned that the North Koreans might sound a siren at noon to mark the 100-day milestone of the elder Mr. Kim?s death. Mr. Obama was at the observation post at that time, but no sirens were heard in the gusty wind.
The timing of Mr. Obama?s visit was also symbolic, coming a day before the second anniversary of the sinking of a South Korean Navy warship, the Cheonan. An international investigation concluded that the ship was torpedoed by the North, though Pyongyang denies culpability.
Administration officials said the visit to the zone, where 28,500 American troops serve alongside South Korean troops, was also a way to honor the loss of the Cheonan, which they said had brought South Korea and the United States closer together.
After a little more than an hour at the border, Mr. Obama?s helicopter, Marine One, headed back to Seoul, where he met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to discuss the escalating violence in Syria, among other issues.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1389f1faca4583b52559d3e490683978
abc world news for kids abc world news intro abc world news japan abc world news kodachrome abc world news made in america
No comments:
Post a Comment