hankyoreh

U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow has again committed a diplomatic blunder. He telephoned United Democratic Party Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu on May 21 to ask Sohn why he is opposed to importing American beef from cows more than 30 months old, and tell him he is “disappointed” and express his displeasure with what he saw as causing “public anxiety” about American beef. A foreign ambassador certainly can convey his views to the leader of the opposition, or request his cooperation, but it is common sense that certain formalities be followed and that the substance be appropriate. If Korea’s ambassador to the United States telephoned the chairman of the U.S. opposition party in a similar manner, what would the American people think?

Ambassador Vershbow’s only explanation, that he was surprised that the UDP disclosed the substance of a private conversation, is also inappropriate. It is his sophistry that is surprising, since he claims that his protest of the biggest opposition party’s approach to the beef issue is a “private” conversation. Maybe the U.S. ambassador thinks that in Korea he is in a position to talk and act however he pleases.

Behavior that crosses the line has made Vershbow’s behavior a topic of discussion more than a few times since he arrived in Seoul in October 2005. Last January he wrote, on the U.S. embassy's website, that Koreans “should be worried about the North Korean regime.” This is interference in the domestic politics of the host country, since he is telling Koreans what to do. He has earned the ire of Koreans with hard-line and arrogant comments about North Korea being a “criminal regime,” that the pace of inter-Korean economic cooperation should go slower, and that South Koreans in places like Gaeseong in North Korea could be potential hostages.

This latest episode is closely related to President Lee Myung-bak’s most humble approach to relations with the United States. With the country’s president actively advertising the safety of American beef, the opposition party must have looked pretty easy to the U.S. ambassador as it noted the problems with the beef agreement. His behavior also means that he thinks the will of the Korean people is of little significance, since a majority want to see a better beef deal. It’s as if we’re going back to the dictatorship years, when the government would pursue relations with the United States that were detached from the Korean people, and the American ambassador ruled like a colonial governor.

The longer you have been an ally, the more you need mutual respect and healthy development. Before he goes on easily writing off Koreans’ collective expression of opinion towards the beef issue as the product of anti-American sentiment, Ambassador Vershbow should ask himself how much he has contributed to the development of U.S.-Korean relations. This latest episode leaves an all the more bitter taste in one’s mouth since, in effect, it has the U.S. ambassador stirring up trouble right up to the point of his upcoming departure.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]