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WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the U.S. House International Relations Committee said Thursday South Korea must make up its mind who the enemy is before it can expect U.S. help in an emergency. Rep. Henry Hyde, during a House hearing on the North Korean nuclear issue, was referring to the omission of the term "main enemy" for North Korea in the 2004 Korean Ministry of Defense white paper.
But the remark has been read as indicating that Washington's discontent over Seoul's handling of the North Korea issue has made its way into the U.S. Congress.
¡ß Seoul must reconsider aid for North Korea
Hyde said the South Korean Defense Ministry omitted from its 2004 white paper a reference to North Korea as the ¡°main enemy¡±, while continued North Korean hostility was a major basis for the South Korea-U.S. alliance. But the same white paper said 690,000 U.S. troops would be deployed to the Korean Peninsula if a military conflict were to erupt - four times the number of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq - reflecting excessive expectations on Seoul's part. He said it was only appropriate to ask for a clear definition of who South Korea¡¯s enemy is if it wants U.S. help.
He said Americans were grateful for South Korea¡¯s contribution of troops to Iraq, the third largest behind the U.S. and Great Britain, but Seoul was sending mixed signals in security matters and thereby making the North Korea issue more difficult. Stressing the North Korean nuclear threat, he said China and South Korea needed to rethink the substantial aid they give to the regime.
¡ß Widely held views in Congress
Hyde¡¯s statement reflects what many within the U.S. Congress have been silently thinking. Both Washington and Seoul have been stressing the solid nature of the alliance through summits and discussions between foreign ministers, but congressional conservatives - and especially Korea experts with civilian think tanks - say fundamental disagreements lie just below the surface.
When South Korea took the sides of the Chinese and Russians in demanding U.S. "flexibility¡± over North Korea, or when President Roh Moo-hyun said during an address in Los Angeles in November that there was some reason to North Korea¡¯s nuclear claims, those differences became plain. The new chillier atmosphere was palpable when both houses of the U.S. Congress unanimously passed the North Korea Human Rights Act late last year despite opposition in South Korea.
When National Assembly speaker Kim Won-ki recently visited the U.S., the Grand National Party's Park Jin said the mood of the U.S. Congress -- Democrats included -- had gotten very hardline after Pyongyang's Feb. 10 declaration that it has nuclear arms. Following discussions with U.S. lawmakers, Millennium Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Nak-yon said the burden faced by the Korean government to maintain cooperation with the U.S. seemed to be growing heavier.
Rep. Tom Lantos, a sponsor of a recent ¡°ADVANCE Democracy Act¡± to spread global democracy, told South Korean lawmakers Seoul and Washington needed to present a united front to North Korea. Grand National Party lawmaker Kwon Young-se said he got the strong impression this meant Lantos wanted Seoul to come round to Washington¡¯s position.
It has become almost routine for U.S. lawmakers and government officials first to express gratitude for South Korea¡¯s troops in Iraq and to mention the firm nature of the alliance when they meet major Korean figures. But in a roundabout way, U.S. lawmakers and government officials have been complaining about Seoul's policy of engagement with Pyongyang.
A typical example was when leading neocon U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz met South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Feb. 14. Wolfowitz said that while one should not overreact to North Korea¡¯s nuclear declaration, it was equally dangerous to under-react. In diplomatic language, that was an expression of concern about South Korean fertilizer aid to the North and intra-Korean economic cooperation continuing regardless.
Even though the U.S. Congress, like the National Assembly, is divided into hawks and doves, conservatives and progressives, it is no exaggeration that the entire U.S. legislature has fallen in with the hard line when it comes to North Korea's nuclear program. Hyde¡¯s comments are emblematic of the dissatisfaction with Seoul spreading in Washington as a sense of crisis over North Korea deepens.
¡ß Who is Henry Hyde?
Rep. Henry Hyde, a 16-term lawmaker from the state of Illinois, is a conservative with a record of hardline comments about North Korea. He was among lawmakers who wrote to Pyongyang demanding to know the whereabouts of South Korean pastor Kim Dong-shik, who was abducted to the North Korea in 2000. He also declared Washington-Pyongyang relations would not be normalized until Kim¡¯s kidnapping was resolved.
Hyde was also one of the key figures who pushed for high-ranking North Korean defector Hwang Jang-yop¡¯s visit to the U.S. in 2001.
(Heo Yong-beom, heo@chosun.com )
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