‘US committed to defending allies’
Obama tells Japan:
US: President Barack Obama told Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda
on Monday that the United States was committed to defending its allies
in the wake of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's death.
Obama spoke by telephone with his close ally as Washington and its
regional partners swiftly closed ranks after the death of the Stalinist
state's volatile leader.
“The president underscored the United States' commitment to the
defense of our close allies, including Japan,” the White House said in a
statement.
“He also conveyed the importance he places on maintaining the
stability of the Korean Peninsula and the region.” It said the two
leaders “agreed that the United States and Japan would monitor events
carefully and stay in close touch.” Obama earlier called his close
friend President Lee Myung-Bak of South Korea.
Kim's death came as North Korea and the United States were making
tentative efforts to restart stalled six-nation talks on the North's
nuclear program.
Nuclear envoys from Washington and Pyongyang met in New York in July
and in Geneva in October, but reported no breakthrough. South Korea's
Yonhap news agency said that a third meeting could have taken place
soon.
Obama warned North Korea in October that it would face deeper
isolation and international pressure if it carried out more
“provocations” like those that rattled Asia last year.
But he also said Pyongyang could expect greater opportunities if it
lived up to its international obligations over its nuclear program.
The North quit the six-party forum, which involves the United States,
China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia, in April 2009, a month before
staging its second nuclear test.
Pyongyang wants the forum to resume without preconditions and says
its uranium enrichment program -- first disclosed to visiting US experts
one year ago -- can be discussed at the talks.
North Korea, which has never signed a peace treaty with the United
States following the 1950-53 Korean war, has been a frequent foreign
policy headache for successive US administrations.
Pyongyang has sought to rest concessions from Washington, and
repeatedly reneged on agreements, like the 1994 Agreed Framework,
designed to limit the development of its bristling nuclear threat.
AFP
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