Obama, South Korea's Lee meet for state visit

President Barack Obama summoned the pageantry of a state visit for South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak Thursday, as the two friends hailed a free trade pact finally endorsed by the Congress. Obama said the alliance between the United States and South Korea had never been better, while Lee, one of his closest confidantes on the world stage, said the new trade deal would be a job-creating "engine of growth." The president and his wife Michelle welcomed Lee and his wife Kim Yoon-Ok to the rain-drenched south lawn of the White House with marching bands, waving flags and full military honors, before a state banquet in the evening. Talks were expected to focus on North Korea's provocations and nuclear program, regional security issues in Asia and an expanding trading future after US lawmakers ratified the trade pact, signed back in the Bush administration. "Today I'm proud to say that the alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea is stronger than it has ever been," Obama said, styling the United States as a Pacific nation that was once more leading in the region. "And with our landmark trade agreement, we will bring our nations even closer, creating new jobs for both our people and preserving our edge as two of the most dynamic economies in the world." Lee told Obama that he considered him one of his closest friends. "The journey of our alliance began 60 years ago," Lee said. "What brought us together more than anything was the value that all of us here hold so dear: freedom," and went on to extol the virtues of a trade accord Obama says will support 70,000 US jobs at a time of high unemployment. "This agreement will create more jobs, it will expand mutual investments into both of our countries. It will become a new engine of growth that will propel our economies forward," Lee said. "It will be a win for both of our countries," he added. The deal was held up for years over implementation issues and after Obama came to power and requested new protections for American workers. The pact, which must also be endorsed by South Korea's parliament, also fell prey to Washington political wrangling between Obama and Republicans but was finally passed with Lee in the United States for the state visit. The visit is meant to honor one of Obama's closest political friendships and one of America's most functional foreign relationships, and further anchor his policy of making Asia the key to future US prosperity. Obama eschews chummy banter with foreign leaders, but has made no secret of the personal connection he has forged with Lee. In fact, the South Korean leader gets a starring role in almost every campaign speech Obama delivers. "I had lunch with (Lee) a while back and I asked him, what's your biggest policy challenge? 'He said, you know, my biggest problem is, is that our parents are so demanding,'" Obama said in Florida on Tuesday. "They're hiring teachers as fast as they can, and what are we doing? We're laying them off in droves." Aides say Lee is one of the foreign leaders who Obama most respects, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he feted at a state dinner in June, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. North Korea's nuclear intransigence is a dominant issue at every meeting between US and South Korean leaders. Obama and Lee are unlikely to unveil any new initiatives during the visit, but may offer the carrot of continuing and fragile engagement track with the Stalinist state. Before leaving Seoul, Lee promised "flexibility" towards the North, in a possible sign of a softer approach. Seoul's accusations that the North torpedoed one of its warships in March 2010 in which 46 people died were followed last November by the deaths of four more South Koreans when the North bombarded a frontier island. But last month, the two Koreas held a second round of talks designed to pave the way for a resumption of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program. US and North Korean officials met in New York in late July and are widely expected to meet again soon. Lee will also Thursday deliver a joint address to Congress and on Friday he and Obama will travel together to a Michigan General Motors plant to highlight the trade pact, which ironically was once hung up on the issue of auto imports.