By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye’s bid for a unified Korea has gained momentum after winning support for her vision of unification from U.S. President Barack Obama.
It is another milestone for Park’s unification initiatives after getting similar backing from Chinese President Xi Jinping, given that Washington and Beijing are the two most influential countries regarding the Korean Peninsula issue.
Last month, Park said that she agreed with Xi to begin talks about how to achieve peaceful unification on the peninsula as soon as possible.
After a four-day official visit to Washington, D.C., Park returned home on Sunday morning.
“President Park has articulated a better vision — a unified Korea free from the fear of war and nuclear weapons — and that’s a vision that we very much support,” Obama said at a press conference following a summit with Park at the White House on Friday.
The two nations adopted a joint statement on North Korea issues for the first time and it also supported Park’s unification drive.
“The United States appreciates President Park’s tireless efforts to improve inter-Korean relations, including through repeated overtures to North Korea,” it said.
“The United States will continue to strongly support her vision of a peacefully unified Korean Peninsula. We will intensify high-level strategic consultations to create a favorable environment for the peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.”
“After discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, President Park talked about peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula with President Obama during the summit. This is significant in that we are expanding international support for the unification issue,” said Ju Chul-ki, the senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, during a briefing on Sunday.
He added that the two sides plan to take necessary follow-up measures although he did not elaborate.
The U.S. support came while the situation on the Korean Peninsula has the possibility of changing from confrontation to dialogue as Pyongyang did not carry out a highly-anticipated launch of a long-range missile on the 70th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party on Oct. 10. In addition, family reunions are scheduled to be held this week.
In this respect, should the reunion event, seen as a yardstick for the North’s sincerity toward improving inter-Korean relations, take place successfully and the repressive state implements the Aug. 25 agreement, the U.S. is expected to support Park’s trust-building process on the Korean Peninsula through in-depth consultations with the South.
After the North’s landmine attack in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Aug. 4, South and North Korea reached agreement to ease tensions. The two sides also agreed, in principle, to hold high-ranking official talks as soon as possible.
“The government is trying to continue the reconciliatory atmosphere between the two Koreas by taking advantage of the ROK-U.S. joint statement,” a government official said.
Meanwhile, Park used the summit as leverage for handling North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
With President Obama having less than 15 months before the end of his term, there was rampant speculation that the U.S. government put the North’s nuclear issue on the backburner, unlike the Iranian nuclear deal.
However, through their fourth summit between Park and Obama, they reconfirmed the willingness to deal with the issue "with urgency."
"South Korea and the United States share deep concern about the continued advancement of North Korea’s U.N.-proscribed nuclear and missile capabilities and agree to address the North Korean nuclear problem with utmost urgency and determination," the joint statement said.
Obma also said that Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs have achieved nothing except to deepen North Korea’s isolation.
"President Park and I are reaffirming that our nations will never accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. We will continue to insist that Pyongyang must abide by its obligations on the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the peninsula in a peaceful manner," he said.
Cheong Wa Dae stressed that given the first-ever joint statement, the nations are highly focused on the issue.
“The joint statement shows that South Korea and the United States are taking the North Korean nuclear issue seriously,” Ju said.
Along with the North Korean nuclear issue, Park “successfully” wiped away deepening doubts about the Korean government leaning closer to China, underlining that the U.S. is Korea’s best ally in the world.
“The Korea-U.S. alliance is the linchpin of peace and stability in the Asia Pacific,” Park said during the press conference.
Obama also said, “We want South Korea to have a strong relationship with China, just as we want to have a strong relationship with China.”
During her visit to the Korean War Veterans Memorial on Wednesday, she told a group of surviving Korean War veterans and family members: “I came here to convey to South Koreans’ mind that we will not forget those who helped us when we were in trouble.”
At a reception, Park said South Korea is a “reliable partner” and that the Korea-U.S. alliance is the linchpin of the United States’ “rebalance to Asia” policy. Park also said that South Korea will remain an “eternal friend” of the United States.