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Uri Party lawmaker Yoo Jay-kun, who heads a Korea-U.S. inter-parliamentary committee, said Friday he would write to U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde rapping him over a taunt that Korea must decide who the enemy is before it can count on Washington's help.
Yoo, a core Uri Party pragmatist, told a press conference he was furious at what he called Hyde's "two-faced" behavior. He said the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee said nothing during scheduled talks between lawmakers from the two countries, only to lash out afterwards.
Hyde last week complained that Korea scrapped the term "main enemy" to describe North Korea but continued to expect vast numbers of U.S. forces to be deployed to the peninsula in an emergency. Yoo said Hyde's statement was tantamount to interference in Korea's internal affairs and constituted "diplomatic insolence."
Yoo reiterated Korea's position that no nation in the world, including the U.S., defines a "main enemy" in its defense white papers. He added the change in expression should not be a problem for either the country's security or the spirit of the Korea-U.S. alliance.
He said it was regrettable for a leading U.S. figure to make inappropriate comments just as Seoul and Washington were moving toward a more mature relationship. Hyde's taunt was likely to dampen ties, he added.
(Ju Yong-jung, midway@chosun.com )
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