President Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in a meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday agreed to try and ratify an epically delayed bilateral free trade agreement next year.

A Cheong Wa Dae official said, "President Lee spoke about a time frame [for ratification] that we wanted and President Obama said he understood Korea's position and said he would make an effort, but they decided not to include that in their official announcement due to concerns such comments could upset U.S. lawmakers."

In an interview with Fox News in Beijing before flying over to Korea, Obama said, "The question is whether we can get it done in the beginning of 2010, whether we can get it done at the end of 2010. There are still some details that need to be worked out."

"We have put our teams in place to make sure that we are covering all the issues that might be a barrier to final ratification of the agreement," Obama said in a joint press conference with Lee after the summit. "And one of my goals is to... make sure that we can create the kind of win-win situation that I know President Lee is interested in seeing as well."

Lee said, "President Obama and I talked about in detail again how to move forward this agreement. If there are any problems in the automobile sector... then we are ready to resolve this issue."

U.S. President Barack Obama strikes a taekwondo pose with President Lee Myung-bak after receiving a taekwondo uniform as a present from Lee at Sangchunjae Hall in Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday.

Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon later told reporters this did not mean there will be a renegotiation of the FTA or a revision of the wording of the contract, but that Korea is willing to listen to U.S. concerns and try to come up with solutions or explanations. But it appears that Seoul cannot rule additional discussions over the automotive portion.

A Cheong Wa Dae official said the two leaders also agreed on the need to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear program through bilateral talks with Washington and six-party talks. They agreed the best way to do this is to offer a so-called "grand bargain" in a bid to dismantle North Korea's nuclear program in one single step rather than in incremental stages for piecemeal rewards.

"I reaffirmed my commitment to continue working together in the six-party process to achieve a definitive and comprehensive resolution of the nuclear issue," Obama said. "As a part of that effort, we will be sending Ambassador [Stephen] Bosworth to North Korea on Dec. 8 to engage in direct talks with the North Koreans."

Lee said, "Although a time frame has yet to be set, the sooner North Korean nuclear dismantlement talks start the better."

The two presidents agreed that their foreign and defense ministers will meet some time next year and discuss specific ways to develop the alliance. Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. A Cheong Wa Dae official said the talks would "broaden and deepen" diplomatic and security cooperation.

The two leaders also discussed the G20 Summit, which Korea will host next year, as well as efforts to deal with global warming. Obama thanked Lee for his decision to send more Korean troops to Afghanistan.