YONHAP NEWS

U.S. President Obama arrives in S. Korea for summit with Lee

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea, Nov. 18 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Seoul Wednesday on a two-day visit for summit talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on North Korea and bilateral issues.

It is the first South Korea visit by President Obama, who ends his Asia tour here after trips to China, Japan and Singapore for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

The Lee-Obama summit will be held early Thursday at South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul.

   "The agenda for the summit will include discussions on ways to implement the Joint Vision for the Korea-U.S. Alliance adopted in June. But the most important and meaningful item will be North Korea and its nuclear issue," a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters, asking not to be identified.

   Washington is expected to hold talks with Pyongyang bilaterally within this year as part of efforts to bring the communist state back to the six-way nuclear negotiations that also involve South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

   North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told China's visiting Premier Wen Jiabao in September that his country may return to the nuclear talks it has been boycotting since late last year if its anticipated dialogue with the U.S. goes well.

   Also on the agenda at the Lee-Obama meeting will be a proposal the South Korean president first discussed with Obama in June, the so-called "grand bargain" to denuclearize North Korea in a single step, instead of in phases, in exchange for massive rewards.

   Last week, a North Korean ship crossed the inter-Korean Yellow Sea border and fired at South Korean vessels warning it to return, in what some read as an attempt by Pyongyang to draw attention ahead of Obama's visit. North Korea's military accused the South of premeditating the "unwarranted" attack and threatened Seoul would "pay dearly."

   The North, however, tried to register a positive image Tuesday. A commentary in the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's largest newspaper and the mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party, offered to "strive for the improvement of the inter-Korean relations in the future." The article was carried by the North's official news wire.

   The Lee-Obama summit will also focus on a free trade agreement (FTA) signed by South Korea and the U.S. in 2007 that has yet to be ratified by their respective legislatures.

   "The president (Lee) is expected to stress the importance of the FTA in that it has been over two years since the deal was signed and it needs to be quickly enacted," the Cheong Wa Dae official said.

   After the summit, the leaders will hold a joint press conference.

   Obama will head home later Thursday after visiting a U.S. military base to meet American servicemembers stationed here.

   The U.S. maintains some 28,500 troops here as a deterrent against North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War which ended without a formal peace treaty.

   bdk@yna.co.kr
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