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WASHINGTON -- With Unification Minister Chung Dong-young calling U.S. House Foreign Relations chairman Rep. Henry Hyde¡¯s demand for Korea to clearly define its enemy ¡°inappropriate,¡± subtle waves have been detected in the United States.
U.S. White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked on Monday by a reporter about South Korea¡¯s omission of the term ¡°main enemy¡± to describe North Korea in last year's defense white paper, he appeared not to understand. ¡°I'm sorry, was South Korea what?¡± he asked.
He then dodged the reporter's second question about the White House position on the term's omission, instead speaking at length about the need for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
To the reporter's third attempt, McClellan replied, ¡°You might want to direct that question to South Korea.¡± It appears that the White House is determined to avoid comment on an issue that has caused small fissures to open up between the allies.
With U.S. officials tight-lipped, Washington's understanding of the state of relations between Korea and the U.S. is hard to ascertain. If McClellan avoided comment, it was at least partly because of the sensitive nature of the matter itself, although some believe it reflects discomfort within the U.S. government.
Many Korea experts outside U.S. government are becoming more critical. In a March 11 piece entitled ¡°U.S-Korea relations at a crossroads,¡± Washington columnist Richard Halloran raised the alarm. ¡°South Korea is fast approaching a critical decision as to whether to try to revive its troubled alliance with the United States or dissolve their joint security treaty, expel American forces from the peninsula and seek an alliance with China,¡± he wrote.
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) senior fellow Derek J. Mitchell said that while the alliance has ostensibly strengthened due to the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq, there were doubts about its long-term and strategic perspective. He said differences in perception over the North Korean threat had shaken the very raison d'etre of the alliance, and Seoul's continued support of and assistance to Pyongyang "confused" Washington.
(Heo Yong-beom, heo@chosun.com )
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