hankyoreh

The Lee Myung-bak administration’s foreign policy and North Korean policy have been about chaos and failure, from their strategy stages to execution. The result has been that Seoul has less say in peninsular issues and what appears to be the long-term hardening of inter-Korean relations. It has constantly been obsessed with a U.S.-Korea alliance that focuses on cooperation with hard-liners in the United States. Barack Obama has now been elected the president of the United States, and so this approach by the Lee administration has no place. It needs to start anew and build a new policy framework.

Obama makes it clear he wants to solve Korean Peninsula issues with direct talks with North Korea, including summit talks. It has also been said that he wants to establish a liaison office in Pyongyang at an early date. It is a situation in which momentum toward resolving the North Korean nuclear issue could spread to U.S.-North Korea negotiations and lead to a changed six-party talks. That in turn will have the effect of speeding up the pace of resolving the nuclear issue, normalization of U.S.-North Korean relations, and discussion about a peace regime for the peninsula and the region.

The Lee administration needs to be prepared to play a leadership role in this process. Most importantly, it needs to say goodbye to its hard-line North Korea policy. It particularly needs to state in clear terms that it intends to carry out the October 4 Summit Declaration and June 15 Joint Statement, and in doing so make inter-Korean relations move faster than U.S.-North Korean relations. Obsessing with taming Pyongyang to Seoul’s liking at a time like this could have Seoul left behind and out of the main current of things. It needs a strategy to, based on progress in inter-Korean relations, support negotiations between the North and the United States, and thereby to lead the discussion on issues facing the Korean Peninsula.

The Lee administration also needs to take a prudent approach to matters pertaining to the U.S.-Korea alliance, and do so with a long-term perspective. The attempt to establish what would essentially be a tripartite alliance between the United States, Korea, and Japan has already revealed itself to be unrealistic, and it needs to stop. We need to be sure we no longer agree to things like keeping troops in Afghanistan, participating in missile defense, and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation Security Initiative for having been excessively fond of a U.S.-Korea “strategic alliance,” the actual substance of which remains vague.

The cooperative internationalism Obama seeks is valid in Northeast Asia, too. This makes our need to engage in balanced diplomacy with other countries even greater.

No reason to rush the ROK-U.S. FTA

It is likely that Obama will demand revisions to, or a renegotiation of, the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement. In the meantime, there has not been ample review of how the FTA would influence the Korean economy and the lives of the Korean people. Despite this, the administration and the ruling party are advocating a strange argument indeed, that Korea be the first to ratify the agreement and, in doing so, put pressure on the Americans to do the same. Now is a time when U.S.-style financial capitalism is swaying unstably and the whole world is talking about a new framework. Any country that acts in haste could get caught up in its own trap. We have no reason to hurry to ratify the FTA with the United States, and we need to give serious thought as to whether it should be given precedence over a multiparty agreement.

The arrival of Obama provides us with an opportunity to maintain peace amidst big powers and grow a foundation for reunification. It will be a realistic opportunity only if we act effectively, and the point of departure for that would be a fundamental transformation of the Lee administration’s foreign and North Korea policies.

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