|
President Roh Moo-hyun and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush, at their summit in Washington over the weekend, affirmed the principle that North Korea must never be permitted nuclear weapons and the nuclear dispute resolved peacefully. The two heads of state also stressed that the Seoul-Washington alliance is firm and stressed above all cooperation between the two countries, which Bush said twice will speak with "one voice."
The summit came as the alliance was said to be so strained that some said its very foundations were starting to quake, while the North Korean nuclear dispute had been approaching crisis point. That the two presidents demonstrated a commitment to speaking with one voice in both the North Korea issue and the alliance could in itself be seen as a significant result.
The task from now on is to manage our post-summit relations with America successfully. The two countries have thus far exhibited a pattern of agreeing in general at summits but exposing differences in particulars once the summit is over. Indeed, some pundits observe that these summits have in the long run had a rather damaging effect on trust between the two countries.
If South Korea and the U.S. are to keep speaking in the "one voice" it must have cost them some labor to achieve at the summit, mutual cooperation must be maintained and strengthened at all levels.
The two presidents discussed how to cope with the nuclear standoff on the premise that the North will come back to the negotiating table, as it seems to have signaled. But Pyongyang may yet defy their expectations, or may return to the talks only to filibuster by presenting conditions the international community cannot possibly accept. If and when situations arise that the two presidents have not taken into consideration, it is vital that they coordinate their responses using all channels available to them.
Back home, it is equally important that the government and ruling party rally behind what the president has agreed at the summit. We cannot have a repeat of past disasters when ruling party officials make preposterous statement on the outcome of a summit under the pretext of airing their personal views. That simply invites the misunderstanding that Seoul is prone to double dealings and does untold damage to the relationship between the two countries. What is needed, then, is firm, responsible leadership from the chief executive and the ruling party top brass.
Of course the national interests of South Korea and the U.S. cannot perfectly coincide all the time, and differences are occasionally inevitable. But to the outside world, allies cannot appear to be constantly at each other’s throats. The government must do everything in its power to manage post-summit relations with the U.S. so that the one voice gained at the summit does not once again split into many.
|
