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U.S. President George W. Bush will come to South Korea on Aug. 5-6, Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday ending weeks of speculation about the date of the impending visit. "We hope that President Bush's upcoming visit will further deepen friendship and trust between the two leaders,¡± presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan told reporters. ¡°We also expect the summit to serve as an opportunity to reaffirm their will to develop with a view to the future the Korea-U.S. alliance, which has played a vital role in promoting peace and prosperity in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia over the past 50-odd years."
The spokesman added Bush¡¯s visit comes at the invitation of President Lee Myung-bak during their Camp David summit in April. Lee and Bush are also expected to meet on the sidelines of the G8 conference in Japan next week, offering them a chance of two summits in a month.
The two countries had been considering a visit before or after the G8 summit but shelved the idea, reportedly because they worried a visit before street protests against the import of U.S. beef have subsided could add fuel to the fire of the protests and have an adverse effect on the two countries' relations. As speculation and denials flew back and forth, some worried that a warning light was flickering in the bilateral alliance, putting the two countries in an awkward position whether Bush came or not.
Ignoring diplomatic protocol that requires two countries to consult on and announce summits simultaneously, the White House twice upset Korea by making a unilateral announcement to the press.
On June 24, the White House announced that Bush would not visit Seoul in early July. And on Tuesday, Dennis Wilder, the Asian affairs director at the White House's National Security Council, told reporters Bush would now drop in at Seoul on his way to the Beijing Olympics in August. The White House apologized and the two countries hurriedly made the official announcement.
Despite those hiccups, Lee and Bush have agreed to meet twice in one month because repairs to the Korea-U.S. alliance are urgent for the conservative governments of both countries. The question is whether Bush's visit will play into the hands of protesters who seem determined to maintain the atmosphere for demonstrations as long as possible, or allow the two countries to consolidate the alliance by overcoming the anti-U.S. beef sentiment in Korea.
That is only one hairy item on the agenda, together with troubles both leaders are having to persuade their parliaments to ratify the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement.
Other thorny issues include how to share the upkeep of the U.S. Forces Korea, pay for the environmental cleanup caused by the relocation of U.S. military bases here, and act in concert in solving the North Korean nuclear issue by overcoming the North's maneuvering to bypass South Korea and deal directly with the U.S.
Meeting in April, Lee and Bush agreed to upgrade ties to a ¡°strategic alliance¡± and put forth their vision for it at their next summit. The future of the ongoing protests here will depend on how substantially the two leaders can solve such issues at what looks like yet another critical juncture in the alliance.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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