South Korea’s President-elect Park Geun-hye on Wednesday pledged to work closely with the United States to further upgrade the alliance with Washington and to smoothly resolve pending issues based on mutual trust, local media reported.
She made the remarks at a meeting with a high-profile delegation of senior U.S. officials led by Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in Seoul, saying that the alliance with Washington helped make South Korea what it is today.
“Looking back, I believe one of the most important elements behind the peace and prosperity of South Korea was the strong Korea-U.S. Alliance. Freedom and economic development that we enjoy now was not granted for free. They are the result of South Korea and the United States working together and overcoming challenges and difficulties together,” the Yonhap news agency quoted Park as saying at the meeting.
Calling the two sides to upgrade their ties to a “comprehensive strategic alliance of the 21st century,” she said there were a lot of pending issues that South Korea and the U.S. should discuss and “I think that if the two countries hold discussions based on trust, they will be resolved in a smoother manner.”
According to Yonhap, Seoul and Washington have been in talks to rewrite an expiring nuclear accord. The 1974 agreement bans Seoul from reprocessing spent fuel because it could yield plutonium that could be used to make nuclear bombs. Seoul now wants Washington to allow it to use a proliferation-resistant technology for enriching uranium and reprocessing spent atomic fuel, but Washington has been reluctant to do so.
The two allies have also to come out with a new deal this year on sharing the cost for keeping 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea. The current agreement calls for Seoul to shoulder 42 percent of the total cost but Washington reportedly wants to raise it to 50 percent.
Campbell arrived in South Korea on Tuesday heading the inter-agency delegation that included U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Mark Lippert and National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Daniel Russel.
The trip marked the first high-level visit by U.S. officials since Park’s December 19 election.
Campbell said the visit was aimed at underscoring Washington’s commitment to the alliance with Seoul. He also delivered letters to Park from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulating her on her electoral win.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. delegation met with officials of the Foreign and Unification Ministries. North Korea’s rocket launch last month also figured in the talks. “We are very clear in our position that provocative steps are to be discouraged,” Campbell told reporters referring to the Communist North’s rocket launch in defiance of the international community’s call to desist from the move.
by RTT Staff Writer
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