Obama to visit world’s most heavily fortified border

President Barack Obama. AFP

WASHINGTON—Amid new tension with North Korea over a planned rocket launch, US President Barack Obama plans to visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea at the start of an international trip next week, the White House announced on Tuesday.

Sunday’s trip to the most heavily defended border in the world carries obvious Cold War symbolism as Obama tries to foster new nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea.

Although US officials regularly go to the DMZ, the presidential visit is likely to be read by the North as a special show of strength to its new, untested leader.

“The DMZ is the front line of democracy in the Korean peninsula and a symbol of US unity with military ally South Korea,” said Daniel Russel, Asia director for the White House National Security Council.

“A visit by the president there to see and to thank the US and the South Korean service members makes perfect sense,” Russel added.

Obama aides noted that his visit comes almost exactly two years after the sinking of a South Korean warship, which Seoul and Washington have blamed on Pyongyang.

Seoul summit

Obama will visit some of the approximately 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the Korean war six decades ago.

The DMZ trip is his first stop on a three-day visit to Seoul for an international summit on keeping nuclear weapons materials out of the hands of terrorists.

The gathering of more than 50 nations is intended to take stock of progress toward Obama’s goal of locking down nuclear material around the world by 2014. Despite some progress by known nuclear nations, the goal of complete security is far distant.

The summit also is overshadowed by North Korea’s nuclear brinksmanship and fears that Iran could soon build a nuclear weapon.

North Korea which has built and tested nuclear devices, is suspected in the spread of weapons of mass destruction to other countries. North Korea was not invited to the security gathering.

“The nuclear security summit is not about North Korea,” Russel said. “It’s about the commitment of the participating nations to honor their pledges and their commitments.”

Odd man out

He said North Korea “will be the odd man out.”

Obama will hold separate discussions on Monday and Tuesday with leaders of Russia, China, South Korea and other nations.

The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice.

Secretaries of state and defense make regular visits to the DMZ, as do other US officials, but presidential visits carry added symbolism.

Obama’s visit to the heavily fortified area will be the first by a US leader visit since 2002, when George W. Bush visited the DMZ village of Panmunjom a few weeks after he condemned North Korea as part of an “axis of evil.”

US Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan also visited the DMZ while in office.

Obama could have skipped the trip in hopes of resuming new arms control talks with the nuclear-armed North Korea but doing so could have opened him to charges of weakness at home.

Food aid could be stalled

North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, visited Panmunjom and the DMZ for the first time as the head of his country this month. Kim ordered troops to be on high alert, state media reported.

Both Obama and Kim are invoking the symbolism of the DMZ at a time of political jockeying over North Korea’s next move—a long-range rocket launch next month.

Washington has warned that a deal to resume stalled food aid to the North could be jeopardized if Pyongyang goes ahead with the launch. AP