Lee, Obama to focus on N. Korea, FTA

Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Barack Obama will hold a summit today to coordinate their strategies to denuclearize North Korea before Washington resumes high-level dialogue with Pyongyang soon.

The leaders will also discuss how to advance a stalled Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and reaffirm their commitment to a broader partnership, Lee's aides said.

Obama yesterday arrived in Seoul, the last leg of an Asian trip that also took him to Japan, Singapore and China.

Also on the agenda will be cooperation for next year's Group of 20 summit in Seoul and joint efforts to promote green growth, including development of renewable energy sources, Lee's aides said.

It will be their third bilateral summit, following one in London in April and another in Washington in June. They also met on the sidelines of multilateral forums such as G8, G20, U.N. and APEC summits.

The presidents are scheduled to meet one-on-one and have an extended session with aides present at Cheong Wa Dae. Obama then will visit a U.S. military base before leaving the country in the afternoon.

The summit is expected to set the stage for the allies' concerted diplomacy to engage North Korea. Obama is expected send his special envoy Stephen Bosworth to Pyongyang by the end of this year to try to bring the North back to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

The North declared in April that it will not take part in the dialogue in protest of a U.N. action against its rocket firing. In October the Stalinist state expressed willingness to return to multilateral talks depending on results of upcoming bilateral meetings with Washington.

Lee and Obama are expected to coordinate their long-term comprehensive approaches to deal with North Korea.

Lee and Obama discussed the possibility of a package deal with the North when they met in Washington in June.

In September, Lee proposed the "grand bargain," a one-step agreement to provide the North with security guarantees and economic assistance in exchange for its irreversible dismantlement of its core nuclear programs.

Obama said last week the two leaders are "in full agreement on the need to achieve a comprehensive resolution of the nuclear, missile and proliferation problems.

Obama has repeatedly assured the North's security and prosperity if it drops nuclear programs.

"North Korea has a choice. It can continue down the path of confrontation and provocation that has led to less security, less prosperity and more isolation from the global community, or it can choose to become a full member of the international community," Obama said after a summit with Chinese leader Hu Jintao in Beijing on Tuesday.

Another focal point of the Lee-Obama summit is the bilateral free trade pact which was signed in 2007 but has languished at both counties' the legislatures.

Chances are low that the summit will generate more than a declaration of their political will to expedite its ratification.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said earlier this month that Korea must address U.S. concerns over automobiles and beef before the Obama administration can send the pact to Congress.

On Wednesday, the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee said that the pact must be revised to fix Korea's rules limiting sales of American cars.

Obama is also likely to appreciate Seoul's recent decision to send workers and security staff to Afghanistan. But Seoul's dispatch will not be discussed during the summit, a senior Lee aide said.

The two leaders will also review the progress made since they adopted the Joint Vision for the Alliance in June promising to forge a comprehensive strategic partnership to tackle regional and global challenges, Cheong Wa Dae said.

(jjhwang@heraldm.com)

By Hwang Jang-jin

2009.11.19