Park will visit US in early May

By Kim Tae-gyu

Park Geun-hye

Barack Obama

President Park Geun-hye’s first overseas trip will be to the United States, Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday.

“At the invitation of U.S. President Barack Obama, President Park will visit the United States early May,” Park’s spokesman Yoon Chang-jung said.

“The decision on Park’s first overseas trip after her inauguration was made in consideration of recent developments on the Korean Peninsula and the significance of the 60-year-old alliance between the two countries,” Yoon said.

He added that the detailed itinerary will be fixed through consultation between Seoul and Washington. The trip is expected to come ahead of summits with her Chinese and Japanese counterparts also slated for May.

As soon as Park won the presidential election last December, Obama made a congratulatory phone call during which they agreed to meet in order to confer on how to handle evolving security uncertainties in Northeast Asia.

On Feb. 25 when Park took office, U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon came to Seoul to present Obama’s invitation.

Donilon confirmed Park’s visit in a speech at the Asia Society in New York, saying, “We look forward to welcoming her to the White House in May.”

The main topic of the bilateral summit is expected to be how to defuse tensions in Northeast Asia caused by North Korea’s nuclear brinkmanship. Also included in the agenda will be the handover of wartime operational command to Seoul scheduled for Dec. 2015 and the renegotiation of the nuclear agreement between the two nations that is set to expire next year.

Traditionally, Korean presidents have picked the U.S., dubbed its “blood ally,” as their first destination of overseas trips but some expected that Park would favor China.

China has emerged as one of the most strategically important countries to South Korea in terms of economics and diplomacy ― the former is the No. 1 trade partner of the latter; plus, it exerts great influence on the North.

“The choice was made on pending issues such as the situation on the Korean Peninsula. In addition, 2013 marks the 60th year of the two country’s alliance,” Yoon said.

As Pyongyang has carried out missile and nuclear tests over the past few months, which prompted the U.N. to come up with a new round of sanctions, tensions have spiraled between the two Koreas that are still technically at war.

The Stalinist North scrapped the 60-year-old armistice that ended the Korean War (1950-53) and indeed cut the military hotline in the truce village of Panmunjom Monday when the South kicked off the joint Key Resolve military exercise with the U.S.