Obama visits Korean border ahead of nuclear summit

CAMP BONIFAS, ROK -- US President Barack Obama visited the border between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday.

US President Barack Obama looks through binoculars to see the DPRK from Observation Post Ouellette during a visit to the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) which borders the ROK and the DPRK, north of Seoul March 25, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Arriving on the eve of a global summit on nuclear security hosted by the ROK, Obama flew by helicopter to a US base on the edge of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to meet troops on the border.

Obama's tour, which followed in the footsteps of White House predecessors and bristled with Cold War symbolism, came amid rising concern over a planned DPRK rocket launch next month that threatens to derail a deal to resume US food aid.

Washington has condemned reclusive and impoverished DPRK's rocket launch plan, which it says will send a satellite into orbit, as a violation of its promise to halt long-range missile launches, nuclear tests and uranium enrichment.

Obama plans to lobby the leaders of China and Russia at the Seoul summit to ratchet up pressure on Pyongyang.

The White House cast Obama's first visit to the DMZ, which has bisected the peninsula since the end of the Korean War in 1953, as a way to showcase the strength of the US-ROK alliance and thank some of the more than 20,000 American troops still deployed in the ROK.

Nuclear Summit

From an observation platform near the line of demarcation that Obama was also set to visit, Obama will have a chance to peer through binoculars at nearby DPRK border posts.

Televised images of Obama venturing into the heavily mined DMZ could burnish his commander-in-chief credentials in an election year and help counter Republican accusations that he has not been tough enough on America's foes.

Obama will join more than 50 other world leaders on Monday for a follow-up to the inaugural nuclear security summit he organized in Washington in 2010 to help combat the threat of nuclear terrorism.

While the DPRK and Iran are not on the guest list or the official agenda, they are expected to be the main focus of Obama's array of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the two-day summit.

Obama's first stop before holding talks with ROK President Lee Myung-bak was the DMZ, a 4-km (2.5-mile) wide buffer that cuts through the peninsula stretching from coast to coast.

US President Barack Obama visits US military personnel stationed at Observation Post Ouellette along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which borders the ROK and the DPRK, outside Seoul, March 25, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]