POTUS on DPRK's "better future"

At a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japan PM Yukio Hatoyama, US President Barack Obama said that the DPRK “can open the door to a better future” should it decide to table it nuclear program.  Not mixing his metaphors, President Obama remarked, “The United States and Japan, with the other members of the six-party talks, will continue to work to show North Korea that there is a pathway, a door, for them to rejoin the international community that would serve their people well and I believe enhance their security over the long term.  They have to walk through that door.”   We can only expect President Obama to add more to his statement when he arrives in Seoul on Wednesday (18 November).

During his  two visit, ROK President Lee Myung-bak will present Obama with an honorary Taekwando belt, and perhaps pitch his “grand bargain.”   President Obama’s statement came on the same day the DPRK labeled the naval skirmish with the ROK  a “politically motivated shameless provocation [and] a futile military adventure.”  With the DPRK’s rhetorical rivalry involving the “north side” and “south side,” President Obama may like he’s in his adopted hometown of Chicago during his too brief sojourn to The Peninsula.

In a related matter, an anonymous State Department source tells Yonhap that Ambassador Stephen Bosworth’s arrival in Pyongyang may occur in early December.