Obama Meets Hu Jintao

"Landep News"

Obama Meets Hu Jintao

United States President Barack Obama on Monday met with Chinese and Russian leaders in Seoul ahead of the summit on nuclear non-proliferation, attended by leaders of 53 nations of the world. He offered a speech in which he urged NKorea to have the courage to pursue peace, and take irreversible steps to meet international demands. He also warned Iran that time was running out on it to solve the problems with its nuclear program.

The same two issues were at the core of his one-to-one meeting with Russian and Chinese leaders. Speaking at Hankuk University, he said that he wanted to convey the leaders in Pyongyang that America had no hostile intentions toward it, but also stressed out that further provocations would have serious consequences.

The president said that North Korean pursuit of nuclear weapons and its provocation did not bring the security the country needed, and did not offer it the respect it was desiring, but contributed to its isolation and to world sanctions.

The United States and South Korea warned Pyongyang that it may face even more sanctions if it decided to go on with the programmed “space launch” of a satellite, about which North Korea says it has no connection to the nuclear program, being a mere form of honoring the 100th anniversary of the founder of the republic, Kim Il-sung.

The United States and its allies though fear that the program may be intended to assure a intercontinental ballistic capability for the regime in NKorea. The world powers warned Pyongyang that pursuing this objective, which should be accomplished by a launching of a satellite into orbit, could jeopardize the food aid program in progress, by which the United States is to deliver hundreds of thousands of tons of food to the Communist regime, confronted with a severe shortage.

The problem of launching the NKorean satellite, which is sure to be on the list of important topics at this summit, has a non-nuclear component, referring to the possibility that the satellite disintegrate in the atmosphere, due to precarious technology used in its construction, and hit the territories of the neighboring countries.

Based on the warning NKorea issued to the International Maritime Organization, the first stage of the rocket should fall in the waters between Korea and China, and the second stage off the coasts of the Philippines.

Following the designated coordinates the satellite would follow, Japan announced that it would make ready to intercept and shoot out of the sky the NKorean rocket in case it is considered that it posed any threat to Japanese land or property. The same was said on Monday by the South Korean authorities, which are making ready to act should the satellite veer toward them.

To eliminate any anxiety of the public, Japanese defense minister said he would immediately issue the order to intercept and destroy the satellite, if it passes over the Japanese territory.

The topic was discussed at the highest level by Chinese president Hu Jintao, who met with South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, and then with the American president Obama.

Xinhua quotes Hu Jintao to have said South Korean president that his country did not want and reversal to what he called a “hard-won momentum” toward reducing tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

In his Seoul speech before he met outgoing Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Barack Obama pledged to further cut strategic arms. As for Iran, he promised to work with Moscow and Beijing to find a diplomatic solution for Iran, but warned that the time was short.

The American president also promised to increase efforts to make sure that the nuclear material does not fall into the hands of terrorists, reminding the major progress made over the past two years to eliminate or secure material that could have been used to make nuclear bombs.

He warned though that there were still nuclear material enough for many weapons which was not secured and was being stored without adequate protection, and that terrorist and criminal gangs are still looking for ways to get their hands on it.

With more than 1,500 deployed nuclear weapons and 5,000 warheads, the United States, the president said, had more nuclear weapons that it needed. He expressed believe that with the weapons it has the United States can deter any enemy from an aggression, protecting the allies and still being able to cut the nuclear arsenal.

In North Korea, state television showed tens of thousands of people gathered in Pyongyang to pay the final respects to departed Kim Jong-il, who died on December 17 of a heart attack. The mourning period for the supreme leader came to an end, which is why the show of devotion was displayed in the capital.

In the speeches on the occasion, military leaders of the People’s Army of North Korea praised the illustrious personality of the deceased and pledged allegiance to the successor, repeating their determination to defend their leader at any cost.

Kim Jong-eun has taken many of the titles his father had, including that of supreme commander of the 1.2 million soldiers of North Korea. He is expected to take another titles that come with the stature of dictator in the Communist country.

The annual session of the NKorean parliament was set for April 13, and experts are expecting to see if there is any change in the power structure of the country. The Communist party is scheduled to congregate in a different meeting in mid-April.

The North Korean case was not formally on the list of topics to be approached by the nuclear non-proliferation summit in Seoul, but the launching of a satellite into orbit is sure to receive much attention.

The United States believes that the launch is a cover for testing missile systems for nuclear weapons that could reach Alaska or further. NKorea launched another satellite in 2009, and it said it was a successful launch, though no airspace agency has detected any NKorean satellite in the sky. It is believed that the satellite sunk into the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Thank's for link:

Tweet