Lee, Obama vow joint efforts to denuclearize N. Korea in single step

SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S.
President Barack Obama urged North Korea Thursday to immediately return to
nuclear negotiations, vowing to take joint efforts to completely denuclearize the
communist nation under a packaged deal.

Following a summit with Lee in Seoul, Obama told reporters that Stephen Bosworth,
special U.S. representative for North Korea policy, will visit Pyongyang on Dec.
8 for bilateral talks.
The move for the so-called a "grand bargain" was proposed by the South Korean
president in a bid to seek to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program in one
single step, instead of in phases.
"We two leaders completely agreed on the need to resolve the North Korean nuclear
issue in one single step as I proposed under a grand bargain, and agreed to
discuss how to pursue that goal in close consultations," Lee said in a joint
press conference with Obama after their summit.
The U.S. president said he and Lee agreed to break a "pattern" of past dealings
with North Korea that in the past allowed the North to walk out on negotiations
and then return for additional concessions.
Obama then stressed that he won't be distracted by side items regarding North Korea.
"The thing I want to emphasize is that President Lee and I both agreed on the
need to break the pattern that has existed in the past, in which North Korea
behaves in a provocative fashion and then returns to talks for a while and then
leave the talks seeking further concessions," Obama told the joint press
conference.
The U.S. leader noted the door was open for the North to come and discuss the
issue, but that a resolution will only emerge if the North is willing to take
"serious steps."
bdk@yna.co.kr
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