Obama: North Korea Can't Manipulate Us Anymore

North Korea can no longer generate major international incidents at will with nuclear provocations, Barack Obama said today, asserting the United States and South Korea are fully capable of defending themselves. "The days when North Korea could create a crisis and elicit concessions, those days are over," Obama said at the White House after meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

The get-together marked the 60th anniversary of the US-South Korean alliance. Obama said that Pyongyang has failed to drive a wedge between the US and South Korea or to garner global respect with its threats. He said the joint US-South Korea meeting at the White House was evidence that the North has "failed again." The meeting also gives Park a chance to build a rapport with Obama, who enjoyed an unusually close bond with the previous South Korean leader, Lee Myung-bak. (More North Korea stories.)