Obama warning to North Korea during frontier visit

Speaking on the eve of a nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea, Mr Obama said North Korea will achieve nothing through threats and provocations.

He added that the launch would make it difficult for the US to go ahead with resuming food aid to North Korea, which was offered only last month.

Mr Obama visited the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) on South Korea’s border before a nuclear security summit in Seoul.

He flew by helicopter to a US base on the edge of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), where he spent about ten minutes on a viewing platform, talking with some of the soldiers on guard.

‘Freedom’s frontier’

“You guys are at freedom’s frontier,” Mr Obama told about 50 troops crammed into the Camp Bonifas mess.

“The contrast between South Korea and North Korea could not be clearer, could not be starker, both in terms of freedom and in terms of prosperity.”

The visit came as North Korea came to a halt to mark the 100th day after “dear leader” Kim Jong-il’s death.

Mr Obama’s tour, which followed in the footsteps of White House predecessors, came amid rising concern over the rocket launch, which North Korea said would send a satellite into orbit.

Washington has said that the launch is a violation of North Korea promise to halt long-range missile launches, nuclear tests and uranium enrichment.

Showcasing alliance

Mr Obama plans to lobby the leaders of China and Russia at the Seoul summit to pressure North Korea to stop next month’s launch, timed to coincide with celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the state’s founder, Kim Il-sung.

The White House cast Mr Obama’s first visit to the DMZ, which has bisected the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953, as a way to showcase the strength of the US South Korean alliance and thank some of the nearly 30,000 American troops still deployed in the country.

South Korea hosts some 50 world leaders at a two-day nuclear security summit starting on Monday to discuss ways to safeguard nuclear materials and facilities from terrorist groups.

It is the second such summit – the first was hosted by Mr Obama in Washington in 2010.