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The final day of President Obama's Asia trip turned into a once in a lifetime experience for a small group of reporters and White House staffers who were taken on a tour of the DMZ, the demilitarized zone between South Korea and its mysterious neighbor to the north, North Korea.

The ride out of Seoul, the South Korean Capital of 12 million people, took about an hour. As we drove along the Han River, we noticed South Korean guard posts every few hundred feet and barbed wire rolling down the banks.

It was an eerie feeling approaching the DMZ as we came up a few checkpoints with anti-vehicle spikes and roadblocks making for delicate driving. Seeing a U.S. soldier salute our van as we drove through made us feel that we had arrived at Camp Bonifas, the United Nations Joint Security Area that comprises the border and is run by the U.S.

Once we got through the first gate, a public affairs officer and a security officer got on board and gave us some basic ground rules, like where we could and could not take pictures. We were all given purple "press" armbands to wear, so we were seen as noncombatants. Our security officer was wearing a yellow one, meaning that he was armed.

We drove past the first few gates and were told not to take any pictures for a while. We passed through security areas, an anti-tank wall and minefield and drove through rice fields before arriving at a large, modern looking, grey stone and glass building. We entered the building and went up an escalator and out another door. We were instructed to stand outside, atop a small set of stairs.

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Even before President Obama sets foot on Air Force One tomorrow to begin a 9-day trip to Asia, he has traveled to more countries in his first year in office than any of his predecessors.

Since taking office, he has made 7 foreign trips and visited 16 countries, 3 of them twice.

The Asia trip – which takes him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea – will bring his total to 8 foreign trips and 20 countries.

The only other president to come close to Mr. Obama's first-year-in-office globe-trotting numbers is President George H. W. Bush, who took 7 foreign trips to 14 countries.

His son traveled abroad five times to 11 countries during his first year. President Clinton only did 2 foreign trips to 3 nations in 1993.

Foreign travel by American presidents is a relatively new practice. No sitting U.S. president left the country until Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. He made a single foreign outing: a 3-day visit to Panama in November of that year to inspect construction of the Panama Canal.

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President Obama will make his first trip to Asia as president in November, the White House formally announced Wednesday. He will visit Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.

The president will begin his trip in Tokyo, Japan, on November 12 and will meet for the second time with the Japanese prime minister, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

"The president's visit will provide an opportunity to deepen coordination with this key ally on a range of economic, security and other issues," he said.

From there, Mr. Obama will travel to Singapore for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, where he will meet with leaders from the APEC member economies and business leaders from the Asian-Pacific region. The president will also hold bilateral meetings with leaders from Singapore and other partners.

Mr. Obama will also hold the first-ever meeting between a U.S. president and leaders of the 10 Southeast Asian nations that make up the ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

He will then visit China and hold his third bilateral meeting with President Hu Jintao to work on a range of issues, including security, nonproliferation, energy and climate change.

The last leg of the trip will be a stop in Seoul, South Korea, where Mr. Obama will hold his third bilateral meeting with President Lee and consult on North Korea and other issues.

While the president has previously discussed visiting Indonesia, where he spent part of his childhood, Gibbs said Wednesday that Mr. Obama will most likely visit there some time next year.

Ooops. Mr. President, you belong at the lectern on the right. And Mr. President, you're on the left.

But those words did not have to be uttered as President Obama quickly realized that he and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak were standing at each other's lecterns as they arrived on the steps of the Rose Garden for a joint press conference.

"Wrong side," said Mr. Obama to his Korean guest, who laughed as he realized the mistake they made and then quickly traded places. It looked like Mr. Obama saw notes in Korean and realized he was at his counterpart's position.

The two leaders spent most of their 27-minute news conference offering up tough talk about North Korea and the threat posed by its nuclear and missile programs.

But when the q-&-a session was over: another oops.

The two leaders shook hands and Mr. Obama guided his guest away from the Rose Garden and back toward the Oval Office. But after just a few steps, they stopped short, did a 180 and headed towards the residence, where they were due to continue their talks at a working lunch in the Old Family Dining Room.

As presidential missteps go, it's still miles from the pinnacle reached by George W. Bush on a visit to Beijing on Nov 20, 2005, when he tried to exit a news conference – through a locked door. It became the symbol of the no-exit strategy.

You can watch video of the beginning and end to the press conference below:

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

President Obama on Tuesday said the United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state, in spite of its ballistic missile test in April and its recent nuclear test.

"We have continually insisted that North Korea de-nuclearize," Mr. Obama said, standing next to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in the White House Rose Garden. "We have not come to a conclusion that North Korea will or should be a nuclear power. Given the belligerent way in which they are constantly threatening their neighbors, I don't think there is any question that it would be a destabilizing situation that would be a profound threat."

Mr. Obama said his administration welcomes the country's economic development but that belligerent, provocative behavior that threatens the country's neighbors will be met with serious enforcement of sanctions that are in place.

"They have not shown any restraint in terms of exporting weapons, not only to state actors but to nonstate actors," he said. "There is a path for North Korea to take in which they are joining the world community, becoming integrated into the world economy...In order to take that path, North Korea has to make a decision and understand prestige and security and prosperity are not going to come through the path of engaging neighbors and threatening violations of international law."

The president emphasized that along with the United States and the Republic of Korea, Russia, China and Japan have also made it clear North Korea will not find security or respect through threats or weapons.

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President Obama today will hold a one-on-one meeting with President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea in the Oval Office, followed by a joint press availability with President Lee in the Rose Garden.

In the afternoon, the president will meet with senior advisers in the Oval Office and then with Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Here is more from the White House press office (all times Eastern):

9:15AM: President Obama receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

9:35AM: President Obama receives the Economic Daily Briefing

10:30AM: President Obama meets one-on-one with President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea

10:45AM: President Obama holds expanded meeting with President Lee

11:35AM: President Obama and President Lee hold joint press availability

12:00PM: President Obama attends working lunch with President Lee

1:20PM: President Obama meets with senior advisers

4:30PM: President Obama and Vice President Biden meet with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

The important matters of state can wait: During a question and answer session in South Korea today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the nature of love.

“I feel like more of an advice columnist than a Secretary of State today,” Clinton joked at the start of her response.

“I am very lucky because my husband is my best friend and he and I have been together for a very long time,” she continued. “Longer than most of you have been alive. And we have an an endless conversation. We never get bored. We get deeply involved in all of the work that we do and talk about it constantly and I just feel very fortunate that I have a relationship that has been so meaningful to me over my adult life.”

Clinton said there really is no description for love.

“How does anybody describe love?” she asked. “I mean, poets have spent millenia writing about love. Psychologists and authors of all sorts write about it. I think if you can describe it you may not fully be experiencing it because it is such a personal relationship.”

The secretary’s comments come a week after Valentine’s Day. Oddly enough, last Valentine’s Day this reporter had a personal interaction with Clinton: She called with well wishes because my significant other was stuck on the campaign trail following the then-presidential candidate.

Click here to watch the phone call.