US President Barack Obama on Sunday urged North Korea to cancel its planned long-range rocket launch, stressing that such actions could only serve in deepening the reclusive communist's isolation in the international community.
"North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or provocations. Bad behavior will not be rewarded," Obama said at a joint news conference with his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak in Seoul on Sunday.
Lee, on his part, insisted that Pyongyang's planned long-range rocket launch would violate standing UN resolutions which prohibit North Korea from conducting launches that use ballistic missile technology, as well a recent US-North Korea nuclear deal. He stressed that any such "provocation" by the North should be met with a firm response.
The two leaders made their remarks on the eve of a two-day nuclear security summit in Seoul. Top officials from 54 countries, including China and Russia, will be attending the summit. Incidentally, North Korea has not been invited to the summit.
Earlier on Sunday, Obama had visited the so-called Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas for the first time. It was the fourth visit by a US president to the DMZ. Bill Clinton, who visited the border in 1993, had called it the "Scariest place on Earth."
Obama visited an observation post on the tense border on Sunday and spent about 10 minutes with the US soldiers deployed along there. He told the American troops that they were "at freedom's frontier," and praised them for creating "the space and the opportunity for freedom and prosperity". Technically, the two Koreas remain at war even now, as the Korean war ended in an armistice in 1953, and not a peace treaty.
Earlier this month, North Korea had announced a moratorium on its nuclear tests, uranium enrichment, and long-range missile tests in exchange for food aid, following a third round of talks with the United States in Beijing last month.
In return to the North's subsequent positive gesture, Washington agreed to meet with North Korean officials in the immediate future to finalize administrative details necessary to move forward with its proposed package of 240,000 tons of nutritional assistance with the prospect of additional aid based on continued need.
But a North Korean announcement made earlier this month about its planned rocket launch has cast doubts on the successful implementation of the deal. The Communist nation's announcement has indicated that it plans to launch the rocket-mounted satellite between April 12 and 16 to mark the birth centenary of the country's founder Kim Il Sung, which falls on April 15.
Pyongyang insists that the planned rocket launch is intended to put the country's "technology of space use for peaceful purposes on a higher stage." But the United States and its allies are viewing North Korea's planned satellite launch as en excuse for conducting a missile test.
The U.S.-North Korea talks held in the Chinese capital last month were originally aimed at convincing the North to rejoin the currently stalled six nation aid-for-nuclear disarmament negotiations, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
North Korea had pulled out of the talks in April 2009 after the UNSC condemned it for launching a rocket and imposed sanctions on several of its firms. The North had earlier agreed during negotiations in 2005 to roll back its nuclear program in exchange for aid.
Soon after walking out of the six-nation talks, North Korea expelled U.S. nuclear experts and IAEA inspectors monitoring its Yongbyon nuclear complex, conducted a nuclear test in May 2009 and test-firing several ballistic missiles. The UNSC responded to the North Korean actions by slamming tougher sanctions on the impoverished country.
Diplomatic efforts to restart the six-party talks gained momentum last year, but the death of North Korea's long-time leader Kim Jong-il on December 17 had left prospects for resumption of talks uncertain. The international community has since been keenly watching the North's untested new leader Kim Jong-un, who took over the regime after the death of his father Kim Jong-il.
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December 19, 2025 15:10 ET U.S. inflation data and interest rate decisions by major central banks were the highlights of this busy week for economics news flow. Employment data and survey results on the housing markets also gained attention in the U.S. In Europe, the European Central Bank and Bank of England announced their policy decisions and macroeconomic projections.