FTA With South Korea is a Couple of Weeks: Obama

President Barack Obama said Thursday that he and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak held a joint press conference in Seoul.

Obama spoke of weeks rather than months, until a free trade agreement signed with South Korea. Lee decided to send a team to Washington to work on the trade agreement, which Obama said that could mean tens of billions of dollars of U.S. exports in the U.S. and seventy thousand jobs    for Americans.


The U.S. president is a win-win situation with Korea is also increasing exports, adding jobs and sharing the benefits of innovation. He also mentioned improvements in environmental protection and workers rights, the latter being crucial in the European Union, strong in South Korea.

Korean conglomerates called chaebols also retained their grip on the market in the country, drawing complaints from foreign companies that have tried to do business.

Obama is in South Korea for the G-20, which meets Thursday and Friday to try to stabilize global financial markets. His trip is part of a 10-day tour of Asia aimed at strengthening trade and U.S. military ties with a region that has prospered economically.

A number of trade union in South Korea and civic groups are preparing for large demonstrations against the G-20, while other groups are planning separate meetings with the hope of attracting the attention of international media.

Before his meeting with Lee and holding a joint news conference, Obama paid tribute Thursday to the U.S. troops fought for sixty years a communist regime said it remains a provocative threat to peace in the region. Speaking to the Veterans Day USA Yongsan Army Garrison, South Korea, the president drew a parallel between U.S. ally and North Korea.

Today, the Korean peninsula offers a clear contrast between a global society that is open and closes in a nation that is dynamic and growing, and a government that prefers to starve his people to change.

Obama paid tribute to the generations of men and women who served in the U.S. Army. He also praised the troops in South Korea and the Americans who fought in the Korean War 1950-1953. The president, who is South Korea’s application earlier this year that North Korea has launched one of the ships of his navy.

North Korea has another way to acquire more nuclear weapons. If they choose to meet their international obligations and commitments of the international community will have the opportunity to offer opportunities of their lives increasingly in place to crush the poverty, Obama reiterated that position during a joint press conference with Lee.

The U.S. president to visit Seoul also included a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who stood firm against pressure to quit your country’s currency to float freely. Obama and Hu began private talks on Thursday after meeting to discuss with journalists.