Obama confronts nuke threat on North Korea front line

OBSERVATION POST OUELLETTE, South Korea (AP) -- President Barack Obama made a symbolic visit to the world's most militarized border on Sunday, striding into the surreal Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea and telling U.S. forces stationed along the DMZ they serve on "freedom's frontier."

Obama shook hands and spoke briefly in the dining hall at a U.S. military camp just outside the 2.5-mile-wide zone, then walked into the heavily patrolled no-man's land to tour a small post where South Korean forces patrol just 100 meters (yards) from the demarcation line.

Obama, positioned behind bulletproof glass, peered through binoculars across the line that has bisected the Korean peninsula for 60 years. The president spent about 10 minutes at observation post, looking first toward North Korea, then back to the South.

It was an unmistakable show of force to communist North Korea and its new leader at a time of diplomatic standoff. Obama underscored the Cold War symbolism by making the tour his first order of business ahead of a gathering of world leaders pledged to keep nuclear materials safe. Nuclear-armed North Korea will not attend. Read More