U.S. President Barack Obama is on his say to South Korea Saturday for next week's Nuclear Security Summit. He flew out on Air Force One in the early Saturday darkness
Mr. Obama will join more than 50 world leaders for the high profile summit in Seoul, including Chinese President Hu Jintao. The White House says Mr. Obama will hold bilateral meetings with Mr. Hu and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Russia, South Korea and Turkey on the sidelines of the summit.
A White House statement Friday said President Obama will also meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to review efforts to support an Afghan-led reconciliation process with the Taliban.
North Korea's controversial nuclear program is likely to be the main focus of the summit.
Mr. Obama will make the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea one of his early visits after arriving early Sunday.
In a conference call with reporters earlier this week, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the main points of the DMZ visit are to show support for the more than 28,000 U.S. troops serving in Korea and to stress the U.S. security alliance with South Korea.
Rhodes said the president's message to North Korea is the same as it has been throughout his administration, that by meeting its obligations and denuclearizing Pyongyang can follow a clear path to better relations with the international community.
The DMZ is considered one of the most dangerous places on Earth, with heavily-armed North and South Korean forces aligned against one another. The two have remained in a formal state of war since an armistice ended combat in the Korean War in 1953.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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