By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed Tuesday to seek a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution against North Korea over its second nuclear test and reaffirmed the strong Seoul-Washington alliance.
Obama said the U.S. will continue to provide a strong nuclear deterrence for South Korea, Cheong Wa Dae said.
The two leaders had a brief conversation over the phone to discuss the North's provocative act, one day after the Stalinist country conducted a nuclear test and test-fired three short-range missiles.
``President Obama told Lee that the alliance was rock-solid and that he wished to make it clear to South Korean citizens that his country's military strength and nuclear umbrella are extended wide enough to protect South Korea,'' presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.
President Lee said the international community must work together to punish North Korea, and Obama agreed to international sanctions against the regime.
``The conversation between the two leaders once again confirmed that North Korea's attempt to shun South Korea while talking directly with the United States will never be realized,'' the spokesman said.
The White House said the two leaders agreed to work closely together to seek and support a strong UNSC resolution with concrete measures to curtail Pyongyang's nuclear and missile activities.
``The leaders agreed that the test was a reckless violation of international law that compels action in response,'' the White House said in a statement.
At a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Lee called on the country to unite against the threats posed by North Korea's nuclear test, saying the international community will take the strongest measures ever against it. Cheong Wa Dae said it proposed a meeting between Lee and the leaders of ruling and opposition parties as soon as possible to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula. However, Chung Se-kyun, chairman of the liberal Democratic Party, rejected the offer, criticizing President Lee for his unilateral decision to join in a U.S.-led program to block the transport of weapons of mass destructions.
President Lee said, ``In the face of the latest nuclear test, we will be taking strong countermeasures that we have never seen before through close cooperation with the United States, as well as other member nations of the six-party talks. The Seoul government will work with the international community to make sure that North Korea completely gives up all its nuclear ambitions.''