Obama in Asia: Setting a newly cooperative tone

[ProSense]

Obama in Asia: Setting a newly cooperative tone

By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent

TOKYO – President Barack Obama is emphasizing cooperation on his first major trip to Asia, opening with a warning to North Korea that there will be tough, unified action by the U.S. and its Asian partners if the Koreans fail to abandon their nuclear weapons programs.

The hard line on North Korea was to be a prominent theme of a Friday night speech that also was intended to more broadly showcase a United States that, under Obama's leadership, seeks deeper and more equal engagement in Asia. It was to be the fifth major foreign address of Obama's 10-month presidency, this one geared toward setting a new tone for the sometimes-rocky U.S. relationship with the world's fastest-growing region.

In the speech, to 1,500 prominent Japanese in a soaring concert hall in bustling downtown Tokyo, Obama planned to give his most extended remarks in some time on North Korea, said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.

Previewing himself, Obama said after a meeting early Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama that "it's absolutely vital" that North Korea — and Iran in the Middle East — bow to international demands that they give up nuclear weapons ambitions. The U.S., Japan, China, Russia and South Korea are partners in talks to persuade North Korea to give up the active nuclear weapons program it has in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Pyongyang is widely believed to have enough weapons-grade plutonium for a half-dozen nuclear bombs

more

President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama., White House Photo, Lawrence Jackson, 11/13/09

[LakeSamish706]

1. That man certainly does get around... Hard to keep up with where he is... n/t

[LonePirate]

2. This is another reminder as to why he deservedly won the Nobel Peace Prize

[Cha]

3. Good point..the speech he's

giving now is an additional reminder.