For the first time since he took office, US President Barack
Obama plans to visit the demilitarized zone between South Korea and North
Korea on Sunday, the day he is to arrive for a nuclear security summit, an
administration official said Tuesday.
The three-day meeting starting Sunday follows up the nuclear security
summit hosted by Obama in 2010.
His plans to visit the DMZ were confirmed by an administration official
who spoke to reporters Tuesday on condition of anonymity, according to the
Washington Post and other media.
A tour of the 38th parallel, which separates communist North Korea from
the democratic, US-allied South Korea, would underline the security alliance
between Washington and Seoul.
White House spokesman Jay Carney last week would not confirm Obama's
plans in South Korea but said that a DMZ visit "would be reflective of the
president's commitment to both security on the Korean Peninsula and the need
for North Korea to live up to its international obligations, give up its
nuclear weapons programme and return to the community of nations."
Other leaders planning to attend the summit include Chinese President Hu
Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, with whom Obama may also be
meeting.
Fifty-three countries are participating in the summit. North Korea is not
a participant.
Russia, the US, Japan, China and South Korea have been working for years
to convince North Korea to halt its nuclear programme.
The potential for a breakthrough arose when Pyongyang agreed on February
29 to freeze its nuclear programme and stop launching missiles in exchange for
food aid from the United States. Last week, North Korea said it would launch a
satellite in April, provoking disappointment and raising the spectre that the
deal could fall through.
On Monday, North Korea asked international nuclear inspectors to resume
work in the country, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The 2010 summit was the first of its kind, bringing many leaders together
in Washington, and more than 40 countries agreed to take steps to prevent
nuclear material from being used in a terrorist attack.
The countries agreed to move away from highly enriched uranium -- the key
ingredient in nuclear weapons -- for power plants and adopt much safer
low-enriched fuel. The United States and Russia pledged to dispose of large
amounts of weapons-grade plutonium their stockpiles.
Ukraine announced plans to give up highly enriched uranium by 2012 as
part of a broader, long-standing effort led by the United States and Russia to
take back the dangerous fuel and convert civilian reactors to low-enriched
uranium.
Canada and Mexico announced plans to abandon the use of highly enriched
uranium and send their stores of the fuel back to the United States. Right
before the summit, Chile shipped the last of its weapons-grade uranium to the
United States.
The US and Canada called on countries to contribute to a goal of $10 billion toward a global fund to promote nuclear security.
