VOA标准英语2009-N. Korean Nuclear Threat Expected to Dominat

（单词翻译）

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has departed for the United States, where he plans to meet with President Obama. Security issues related to the North Korean nuclear threat and the recent United Nations response, are expected to top the agenda.
　
South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak (file photo)

In a radio address before boarding a flight Monday to the United States, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed¹ to work with President Obama on issues of mutual² security and economic growth.

He says he hopes to firm up the South Korean-American alliance and push forward a trade liberalization agreement between the two countries - all the while building trust with President Obama.

First formal meeting

Tuesday's scheduled meeting is to be the first formal summit between the two leaders. It comes weeks after North Korea conducted its second test of a nuclear weapon and just days after Pyongyang vowed to convert its entire remaining plutonium supply into weapons material.

Nam Ju-heong, a professor of International Politics at Seoul's Kyungki University, says those events add urgency to this week's talks.

He says this is no mere³ courtesy call - that this week's meeting will be tackling real security issues. Nam says, above all, important words will come out from this summit providing a vision for the future.

Nuclear umbrella

Those "important words" may include some more explicit⁴ guarantee of what is often referred to as the U.S. "nuclear umbrella" over the South. South Korean media reports have been citing unnamed South Korean government officials as saying Mr. Lee will seek written assurance the United States will provide a so-called "extended nuclear deterrent⁵" to the South.

The North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper lashed⁶ out at the South, Monday, for allegedly seeking such a guarantee, calling it an "unforgivable crime" aimed at starting a "second Korean War with nuclear weapons."

International security analysts⁷ say America's decades-long guarantee of South Korea's security has always implicitly⁸ extended to nuclear defense⁹. However, this week's summit may produce the first written U.S. guarantee to that effect.

Trade deal

Presidents Lee and Obama are expected to discuss mechanisms¹⁰ for enforcing the newly passed United Nations Security Council resolution 1874, in response to the latest North Korean nuclear test.

They also hope to push forward ratification¹¹ of a wide-ranging trade liberalization deal their predecessors¹² signed in 2007. Neither country's legislature has ratified¹³ the deal, amid controversy¹⁴ over politically sensitive clauses as well as distractions¹⁵ caused by the global financial crisis.