Barack Obama to visit demilitarised zone between North and South Korea

Officials said that Mr Obama wanted to show support for the alliance for South
Korea and also US soldiers at the demilitarised zone which is surrounded by
barbed wire and minefields and bisects the Korean peninsula.

US analysts said that North Korea could take the visit as an inflammatory but
that it had been planned regardless of the state of the relations with the
North.

“North Korea will no doubt play this as a provocation, but this was a
move that was being talked about even if the deal had collapsed, which now
looks likely,” Bonnie S. Glaser, Korea expert at the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington told The Daily Telegraph.

Hopes for a positive outcome to the so-called ‘leap year’ deal that was
announced on February 29 plummeted last week when North Korea announced it
would conduct a satellite launch to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim
Il-sung, the founder of the Stalinist state.

A similar ‘satellite’ launch in 2009 was the catalyst for international
sanctions after the US and its allies said the launch was a covert test for
Pyongyang’s ballistic missile programme, which contravenes several UN
resolutions.

China, the last ally of North Korea, has since held two emergency meeting with
officials from the regime in an attempt to dissuade them from the launch and
save the talks.

“We hope North Korea and the United States continue dialogue and maintain
contact, and cherish these hard-earned achievements,” said Luo Zhaohui,
Beijing’s envoy to the North “This has important significance in
alleviating the situation on the peninsula and improving U.S.-North Korea
relations.”

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