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Park embarks on U.S. visit

By Lee Joo-hee
Korea Herald correspondent

NEW YORK -- President Park Geun-hye arrived in New York on Sunday (early Monday Korean time) on the first leg of her first overseas tour in the U.S.

Her agenda includes summit talks with U.S. President Barack Obama to send a united message on North Korea, regional cooperation and a reinforced Seoul-Washington alliance.

The two presidents are expected to adopt a joint declaration marking the 60th anniversary of the two countries’ alliance upon their first official summit meeting on Wednesday.

Park and Obama are likely to express fortified cooperation between Seoul and Washington to send stronger warning against North Korea’s provocation and nuclear threats.

Park is also expected to urge the U.S.’ support for her trust-building efforts with the North and Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative, resemblant of Europe’s Helsinki process of the 1970s.

Park remains committed to these visions for peninsular peace and regional security, aides said, despite criticism that it was out of tune with current developments.

“The two countries are preparing a joint declaration commemorative of the alliance’s 60th anniversary about the direction of the two countries’ future development,” presidential spokesman Yoon Chang-jung said Friday.

“The declaration will go beyond the future vision of the alliance announced in 2009, and will include core factors about the two countries’ future direction that foresees the next several decades,” he said.

The two leaders are likely to reaffirm their tight-knit cooperation on regional matters including security, the economy and climate change on the comprehensive strategic alliance for a “global partnership.”

Sources said Park and Obama will express stern opposition to Pyongyang’s recent acts of belligerence including its missile threats and the shutdown of Gaeseong industrial park.

Another key purpose of the trip is to reassure American investors of the stability of the Korean market, which suffered heightened anxieties over North Korea’s threats of a military attack.

A record number of conglomerate owners including Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee are accompanying Park to attend meetings arranged with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

A company representing Korean businesses operating in the Gaeseong industrial complex is also joining the business delegation, presenting an opportunity to explain the position of the South Korean side of the suspension of the symbolic inter-Korean project. The Gaeseong industrial complex has been suspended since the North pulled out all of its workers. This was followed by a slow withdrawal of all remaining South staff in the border town.

In New York, Park is set to meet Korean-Americans, before meeting with U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and other South Korean employees in the U.N.

Park will then move to Washington and pay tribute to the Korean War veterans at the Arlington National Cemetery.

The summit talks with Obama will be followed by a luncheon, a joint press conference and a dinner commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance.

Park’s itinerary in the U.S. capital also includes a meeting with World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and delivering a speech before Congress.

Park’s speech at the Capitol takes place one year and six months after her predecessor Lee Myung-bak delivered his. Yoon explained it is the first time since 1945 for two consecutive presidents to speak at the U.S. Congress.

The itinerary is also filled with business-related events, including a roundtable hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a debate in Los Angeles about her “creative economy” drive.

On her way back to Seoul, Park will stop over in Los Angeles and join Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for a luncheon and meet with Korean residents in the city.

Cheong Wa Dae said the slogan of Park’s U.S. visit is “Bound by trust, forward together” to summarize the meaning of the summit talks that will design the future of the trust-based Korea-U.S. alliance.

Observers said the slogan also looks to have taken into account Obama’s latest political jargon including “forward” and “together.” Obama’s election slogan for his second presidential bid was “forward.”

He also concluded with the words “we stand together, we work together, we go together” during a speech at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul last May. (jhl@heraldcorp.com)