adminIn brief remarks ahead of the bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in the South Korean capital Seoul yesterday, Obama said he was looking forward to a frank and constructive meeting.
“Obviously of great importance to us, and I hope to you as well, is the situation in North Korea, and the situation in Iran,” Obama said.
“We both had an interest in making sure that international norms surrounding non-proliferation and preventing destabilising nuclear weapons is very important.”
While the official agenda of the summit is to strengthen measures to track the movement of nuclear materials worldwide, much of the dialogue is expected to focus on efforts to get North Korea to back off a planned rocket launch and return to disarmament talks.
“I think, co-operation and co-ordination between the United States and China is very important not only to the interest of our two countries but to the interest of the world,” he added.
North Korea announced earlier this month that it would send a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket.
Pyongyang has said the launch is part of its peaceful space programme and says a new southern flight path is meant to avoid other countries; previous rockets have been fired over Japan.
Obama has urged North Korean leaders to abandon their rocket plan or risk jeopardising their country’s future and thwarting a recent US pledge of food aid in return for nuclear and missile test moratoria, considered a breakthrough after years of deadlock.
The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, attended by nearly 60 world leaders, started with a working dinner yesterday and continues until today.
Earlier in the summit, Obama said that he was pushing for “a world without nuclear weapons” and was committed to deterring nuclear proliferation, while on a visit to Seoul for the two-day 53-nation nuclear summit.
Obama held out the prospect of new reductions in the US arsenal as he sought to rally world leaders for additional concrete steps against the threat of nuclear terrorism.
“We can already say with confidence that we have more nuclear weapons than we need,” Obama told students at South Korea’s Hankuk University a few hours before the global nuclear security summit opened in Seoul.
Obama told students that he was confident the United States and Russia could jointly reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons, building on the successful extension of arms control agreements known as START.
The White House said nuclear weapons reduction continued to be a priority in US relations with Russia. — Al Jazeera.
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