hankyoreh

at the Blue House

US Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting South Korea on May 17-18 to discuss an upcoming US visit in mid-June by President Park Geun-hye.

The US State Department announced on May 11 that Kerry would be meeting Park and Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se to “discuss a range of global, regional, and bilateral issues, as well as President Park’s upcoming visit to the United States.”

The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a similar announcement on May 12.

Park would be making her third US visit and holding her fifth summit with US President Barack Obama since she took office in 2013. In terms of security issues, the latest meeting is expected to focus on the North Korean nuclear program and potential resumption of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue, along with recent military concerns over North Korea’s successful SLBM test launch and possible deployment of the THAAD missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula. Major economic issues are likely to include South Korean membership in the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). A formal signing may be also be attempted for the revised Atomic Energy Agreement initialed by the two countries last month.

The focus is likely to be on how Park’s visit compares to last month’s still-controversial one by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During his US visit, Abe paraded his country’s “second honeymoon” with the US, opening the door to a “qualitative change” in the US-Japan alliance with revision of their defense cooperation guidelines and delivering the first-ever joint address to both houses of Congress by a Japanese Prime Minister. Park’s trip could test Seoul‘s diplomatic mettle amid the increasingly cozy ties between Washington and Tokyo.

The South Korean government, for its part, is noting the top-level reception Park enjoyed during her first visit in 2013, when she too addressed both houses of Congress.

“This isn’t a matter for comparison. Japan‘s got its own schedule, and so do we,” explained a senior government official on condition of anonymity.

“In the broader scheme of things, I don’t think there‘ll be much difference,” the official added - an admission that Park is unlikely to have the same reception Abe did.

Some experts are recommending that instead of simply drawing comparisons with Tokyo, Seoul should be working on beefing up the substance of its ties with Washington and focusing on seizing the initiative in the country’s diplomatic affairs.

“If [Park] doesn‘t want to just be compared to Abe, she needs to generate real results by turning things around and establishing an overall picture of how to resolve North Korean issues,” advised Choi Kang, vice president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

Handong Global University professor Kim Jun-hyung agreed. “If we don’t want to end up dragged into the US and Japan’s framework against our will, we have to establish some other kind of leverage and keep our distance,” Kim said.

“The only way to do that is by taking control on North Korea issues with a historic proposal to Pyongyang,” he added.

By Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter

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