President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama hold a joint news 

conference after holding talks at Cheong Wa Dae on April 25.

 (photo: courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae)

By Oh Chung-sook

President Park Geun-hye and the visiting U.S. President Barack Obama agreed April 25 that the two allies will reconsider the timing of the transfer of wartime control of South Korean troops from Washington to Seoul scheduled for sometime in 2015 due to North Korea’s provocative moves with its nuclear weapons and missiles.

The two leaders also have issued a warning to North Korea not to take any provocative actions amid growing concerns that the communist nation is prepared  to conduct a fourth nuclear test. The U.S. Chief Executive warned Pyongyang: "Threats will get North Korea nothing, other than greater isolation."

President Obama flew in from Japan earlier in the day for a two-day visit, his fourth to South Korea, making Seoul the president's most visited foreign city. South Korea is the second leg of his four-nation Asian tour including Malaysia and the Philippines.

The U.S. president arrived in Seoul while South Korea has been in national mourning over the accidental capsizing of the ferry boat Sewol that left more than 300 people dead or missing, mostly high school students. 

"For now, I just want to express, on the part of the American people, condolences for the incredible loss that has taken place," Obama said at the start of talks with Park. "As allies but also friends, we join you in mourning the missing, and especially the young people."

The two leaders and their delegations also observed a moment of silence at Obama's suggestion.

As a token of sympathy, Obama handed to the Korea president a U.S. national flag. 

North Korea, with its nuclear weapons program, was one of the key topics for Park's meeting with Obama with an intelligence report that Pyongyang is ready to conduct its fourth nuclear test.

"The United States and South Korea stand shoulder-to-shoulder both in the face of Pyongyang's provocations and in our refusal to accept a nuclear North Korea," Obama said during the joint news conference.

Other topics for Park's talks with Obama included enhancing three-way security cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, such as by forging a military intelligence-sharing pact, as well as Washington's push for a regional missile defense system.

Both Park and Obama said that South Korea will pursue its own missile defense system while working together with the U.S. to enhance its interoperability with the U.S. missile defense system. 

The agreement was considered a compromise between Washington's push for South Korea to join its missile defense system and Seoul's reluctance to do so over concerns that such a move would raise tensions with China.

On trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, the two sides said in a "joint fact sheet" issued after the talks that they recognize the importance of trilateral information sharing to respond to North Korean nuclear and missile threats.

On April 25, Park stressed that Japan should first take sincere and genuine steps to resolve the issue of Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, the biggest thorn in their relations, if their ties are to improve.

Obama also urged Japan to face up to history and address the sexual slavery issue.

"This was a terrible, egregious violation of human rights. Those women were violated in ways that even in the midst of war were shocking and they deserve to be heard, they deserve to be respected," he said.

Obama brought nine ancient Korean seals with him and returned them to South Korea. The national treasures were shipped out of Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, and their return is seen as a sign of the close friendship between the two countries.