This is a developing story and will be updated. Check back for more.
SEOUL — Amid concerns that North Korea might soon conduct its fourth nuclear test, U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with top military officials on the peninsula Saturday morning.
The meeting with U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who heads the joint Combined Forces Command, and his South Korean counterpart came on the president’s second stop of his Asia tour, which began earlier this week with a visit to Japan.
Meanwhile, some 1,500 U.S. troops and family members gathered in bleachers at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan’s Collier Fieldhouse, where the commander-in-chief began 11 a.m. remarks by stressing the servicemembers’ important role in relations with South Korea.
“All of you have helped keep this alliance the linchpin of stability and security in the Asia Pacific,” Obama said.
Col. Tommy Mize watched Obama's speech with his 6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, perched on his shoulders. Seeing the president in Seoul was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for her that was made even more special because of the location: Elizabeth's mother is Korean, he said.
“It's her first time to see the president, and the fact that we were able to do it together, it's something I'll always treasure,” Mize said.
South Korean officials have said the North may be readying for a fourth nuclear test despite warnings of possible tougher sanctions from the international community.
“All they are waiting on is a political decision from Pyongyang, and they are capable of conducting a test at any time,” a South Korean government source said this week.
After arriving in Seoul on Friday, Obama laid a wreath for fallen troops at Seoul’s War Memorial of Korea and took part in a naturalization ceremony for U.S. servicemembers. He also participated in a ceremony returning nine historic royal seals taken from the country as mementos by a U.S. Marine six decades ago during the Korean War.
“I don’t think he fully appreciated the historic significance of them,” Obama said of the Marine. “After his passing, his widow discovered how important they were, and she graciously recognized that they appropriately belonged here in Korea.”
During a bilateral meeting with Park, the two presidents agreed to reconsider the timing of next year’s scheduled transfer of wartime leadership to South Korea, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News. If a war broke out today, the top U.S. commander would lead both U.S. and Korean forces.
That responsibility will fall to the top South Korea commander after the transfer of operational wartime control, commonly referred to as OPCON, takes place.
OPCON transfer is scheduled to take place in December 2015, but tensions with North Korea last year pushed Seoul to ask for a delay.
The transfer was initially supposed to take place in 2007 but was postponed until 2012. After the North’s sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010, the date was pushed forward again to 2015 amid questions about whether the South’s military was ready for the job.
Obama’s visit to Seoul has been largely overshadowed by the ongoing search for passengers of a ferry that sank of the peninsula’s southwest coast on April 16. Approximately 300 of the ferry’s 476 passengers are thought to have died in the disaster.
As of Saturday morning, about 185 bodies had been recovered from the sunken ferry, according to Yonhap. The USS Bonhomme Richard participated in search-and-rescue operations in the days after the accident, and two U.S. Navy diving and recovery experts are currently embarked on South Korea’s Dokdo amphibious ship to act as advisers during the operation.
The USNS Safeguard, a rescue and recovery ship, arrived in Busan on Saturday and is waiting on a possible request from South Korea for assistance, the U.S. Navy said on Saturday.
The president is scheduled to travel Saturday to Malaysia for the next leg of his Asia trip, which will conclude with a stop in the Philippines.
rowland.ashley@stripes.com
Twitter: @Rowland_Stripes
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