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Rumblings from Washington on the eve of a meeting between the Korean and U.S. presidents are causing some consternation in Seoul.
Reports said U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless threatened Korea during a visit to Seoul on Sunday to Monday, saying the country¡¯s strategic value was finished, and if it failed to accept American demands, the U.S. forces in Korea could be withdrawn. Reports also have Lawless visiting the Korean Embassy in Washington on May 31 and telling Korean ambassador Hong Seok-hyun, "Korea's Northeast Asian balancer role is a concept that cannot coexist with the Korea-U.S. alliance. If you'd like to change the alliance, say so anytime. We'll do as you like."
The defense and foreign ministries have denied the reports. But some officials said the remarks were a way of conveying that such opinion exists in Washington, and that Lawless, who apparently enjoys a reputation as something of a rough diamond, ¡°always talks like that,¡± so there was no need to worry. The officials indicated that Lawless did say things along the lines the reports suggested.
The American press is also grumbling about Korea. In the New York Times on Thursday, one Jasper Becker, the author of a book called "Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea", contributed an op-ed piece titled, "Dancing with a Dictator¡± that said South Korea is trying to keep the North Korean regime in power. He questioned what President Roh had gained from his "appeasement" of the North, and wrote, "Rather than coddling Kim Jong-il and paying him nuclear blackmail, we should be working to arraign him before an international criminal tribunal."
The Christian Science Monitor, moreover, in an article titled, "Untying the Korean Knot," said, "Some Pentagon officials and regional experts consider the alliance 'ripe' for review" while "long-term trends are pulling the two countries apart." Cato Institute scholar Doug Bandow said, "There isn't a lot of consideration of President Roh within the Bush administration as a serious alliance partner."
But that atmosphere is unlikely to influence the summit, since matters in the alliance that exercised the U.S. have largely been resolved, including a tiff over an ill-fated joint operational plan for contingencies in North Korea. The pressing nature of the North Korean nuclear dispute will also make it difficult for the two leaders to clash publicly.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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