Obama, Park ready to ‘engage’ North Korea

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart stressed their readiness to “engage” nucleararmed North Korea on Friday, albeit with conditions.

Hailing the Washington-Seoul alliance as the “lynchpin” of security on the Korean Peninsula, Obama welcomed Park Geun-Hye to the White House and said his nuclear deal with Iran carried lessons for Northeast Asia.

If Pyongyang is willing to curb nuclear and missile programs that have “achieved noth- ing except to deepen North Korea’s isolation,” Obama said, “I think it’s fair to say we will be right there at the table.”

His comments came during a South Korea visit that was designed to underscore close ties as South Korea also deepens relations with China.

Park won a significant diplomatic victory when Obama “welcomed” her Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative, designed to rekindle talks with Kim Jong-Un’s bellicose government.

The regional forum — in- cluding North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, Russia and Mongolia — is seen by Seoul as a way to bolster regional cooperation and keep much-constricted diplomatic channels open with its bellicose nuclear-armed neighbor.

The White House said Obama had tasked senior diplomat Sung Kim to work on the project.

Senior South Korean officials privately acknowledge a decade of US-led stop-start “six party” talks to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program are all but dead.