President Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol celebrated their “ironclad alliance” Wednesday amid fife and drums on the White House lawn ahead of high-level meetings and a state dinner.
Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden greeted Mr. Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, one day after the president announced his formal bid for reelection.
It’s the second state visit of the Biden presidency — French President Emmanuel Macron came for the first — and is part of Mr. Biden’s attempt to shore up U.S. alliances in the face of Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific and other global crises.
“Today, our economies are on the vanguard of technology development, our nations are powerhouses of innovations and our people, united still by our demographic values, are taking on the challenges of the world, and we’re taking them on together,” Mr. Biden said.
“We’re standing strong against Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine, advancing an Indo-Pacific region that is free and open, building secure and resilient supply chains and pioneering the green energy economy.”
The U.S. president highlighted American and South Korean troops who fought in the Korean War and set the two nations on course for a 70-year alliance. Thousands of U.S. troops are still stationed on bases in South Korea.
“It’s an unbreakable bond, forged in bravery and the sacrifice of our people,” Mr. Biden said before ceding the stage to Mr. Yoon to offer remarks in Korean.
The South Korean leader hailed the bravery of American troops who sacrificed their lives in a faraway land in the 1950s “for one noble cause, to defend freedom.”
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Biden and Mr. Yoon announced the positive identification of the remains of Army Cpl. Luther H. Story, a Georgia man killed in the Korean War. He was honored for his valor, but his remains had not been found and identified for 73 years.
