Seoul Man

Seoul, South Korea — President Obama meets on Thursday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

In the meeting, the US president will, according to an administration official:

• Thank South Korea for its recent pledge to expand its Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Afghanistan. There are currently roughly two dozen South Korean medical personnel and vocational training experts at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram; reports indicate that South Korea will expand their ranks and add soldiers and police officers to protect their efforts. Previously, South Korea had sent 300 medics and engineers to Afghanistan, but they were pulled out in 2007 after a hostage crisis that ended with the Taliban killing 2 out of 23 kidnapped South Korean Christian aid workers;
• Discuss efforts to end the North Korean nuclear weapons program by restarting the six-party talks as soon as possible, and brief President Lee on the pending visit North Korean trip of Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korean policy and a former US Ambassador to South Korea;
• Hammer out details to complete the stalled US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement. In an interview with Fox News Channel, the president provided a timeline for the first time, saying "the question is whether we can get it done in the beginning of 2010, whether we can get it done at the end of 2010. There's still some details that need to be worked out." Democratic congressional leaders have complained the pact is unfair to U.S. automakers, who only sent roughly 7,000 cars to South Korea in 2008 while Korean automakers Kia and Hyundai exported a hundred times that to the U.S.
• Push ways to continue progress made in rescuing the global economy; South Korea will host the next G-20 meeting in 2010;
• Discuss other security issues and climate change.

Before he leaves, President Obama will go to Osan Airbase where he will thank US troops for their service, after which he is officially scheduled to return to the US.

-jpt