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The Foreign Ministry in 2004 bypassed Cheong Wa Dae in discussions with Washington on so-called strategic flexibility for the U.S. Forces Korea, leaked documents suggest. The U.S. and Korean chief diplomats finally reached agreement last month allowing the USFK to be deployed to trouble spots elsewhere but requiring consent from Seoul if they intervene in a regional conflict.
Uri Party lawmaker Rep. Choi Jae-cheon disclosed a National Security Council document on strategic flexibility dated April 5 last year, one of a batch of leaked NSC documents he made public on Thursday. The ministry¡¯s U.S. bureau chief ¡°dispatched the draft memorandum without even informing the VIP; of course the NSC was not informed,¡± the document reads. ¡°It wasn¡¯t until March 2004 that the NSC became aware of the memo.¡± VIP here means President Roh Moo-hyun. The Foreign Ministry said Thursday the dispatch was simply a rough memo that came from the department chief, not an official memorandum.
The classified documents indicate that the U.S. confirmed that strategic flexibility aims to allow U.S. troops in Korea to intervene in a flare-up between Taiwan and China or patrol near China if need be. They also suggest that the U.S. proposed allowing joint Korean-U.S. forces to respond to any armed conflict in Northeast Asia.
The documents also show Choeng Wa Dae agonizing over an infamous joint operational plan preparing for a collapse of the North Korean regime. In one document, the presidential secretary for information and policy monitoring - the official who monitors domestic affairs -- worries that strategic flexibility ¡°is inextricably linked with O-Plan 5029¡¦ and may also result in giving complete carte blanche to U.S. missile defense and the use of nuclear weaponry.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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