Obama Salutes US Troops, Condemns North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (Nov. 10) -- Celebrating America's Veterans Day, President Barack Obama on Thursday saluted the bravery of U.S. troops who defended South Korea during its war with North Korea and condemned the communist north for continuing on a course that he says deepens its isolation from the rest of the world along with the poverty of its people.

Speaking at an Army garrison in a country where the U.S. keeps a presence of more than 28,000 troops, Obama said North Korea knows the path to prosperity and suggested its leaders take it.

"Because the Korean War ended where it began geographically, some used the phrase 'Die for a Tie' to describe the sacrifice of those who fought here," Obama said. "But as we look around at this thriving democracy and its grateful, hopeful citizens, one thing is clear: This was no tie. This was a victory.

"It was a victory then, and it is a victory today," he said.

The president was in Seoul for meetings of the Group of 20 economic powers. He arrived hoping to seal an elusive trade deal with South Korea that could mean jobs and new markets for frustrated businesses and workers back home. Yet the deal was still in the balance in the last hours, slowed by U.S. demands over South Korea's auto trade and its market for U.S. beef.

Under worldwide pressure, Obama also told global leaders that they share the burden with the U.S. to fix trade-stifling imbalances and currency disputes that imperil economic recoveries everywhere. He promised the United States would do its part but declared "the world is looking to us to work together."

In the Veterans Day address, Obama said the Korean peninsula provides the world's clearest contrast between a society that is open and one that is closed, between a dynamic, growing nation like South Korea and a North Korea "that would rather starve its people"

"It's a contrast so stark you can see it from space, as the brilliant lights of Seoul give way to utter darkness in the north," he said, adding that it is a direct result of the path chosen by the reclusive, communist north.

Obama said the U.S. "will never waver" in its commitment to South Korea's security and that North Korea's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons will only lead to more isolation and less security. He urged Pyongyang to take another path, a road that he said will offer its people growing opportunity instead of crushing poverty.

The commander in chief spoke inside a packed gymnasium, addressing a uniformed audience of service members from the different branches of the U.S. military. They surrounded him from all sides, and many snapped photos as he spoke.

Obama condmened North Korea and said its circumstances were not "an accident of history" but a direct result of the path it has chosen - "a path of confrontation and provocation" that he said included its relentless pursuit of the nuclear weapons and the deadly attack earlier this year that sunk a South Korean warship.

"In the wake of this aggression, Pyongyang should not be mistaken: the United States will never waver in our commitment to the security of the Republic of Korea," the president said. "The alliance between our two nations has never been stronger, and along the with the rest of the world, we have made it clear that North Korea's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons will only lead to more isolation and less security."

Obama said North Korea has another path available to it.

"If they choose to fulfill their international obligations and commitments to the international community, they will have the chance to offer their people lives of growing opportunity instead of crushing poverty - a future of greater security and greater respect; a future that includes the prosperity and opportunity available to citizens on this end of the Korean peninsula," he said.