hankyoreh

When asked about President Moon Jae-in’s foreign policy during an interview with the Hankyoreh, Kongdan (Katy) Oh, 67, a senior Asia specialist at the US Institute for Defense Analyses, placed a particular emphasis on South Korea’s self-respect and courage.
The Institute for Defense Analyses is a publicly funded research institute for the Pentagon and the US Federal Government. Oh has researched security strategy for seven years at the RAND Corporation and for 20 years at the Institute for Defense Analyses. Oh was interviewed on May 8 and exchanged emails on May 10.

Kongdan (Katy) Oh

Hankyoreh (Hani): President Moon Jae-in has agreed to hold a summit with US President Donald Trump in the near future.

Kongdan Oh (Oh): The Trump administration is an extremely unusual administration in American history. The president lacks principled advisors, which makes it extremely difficult for South Korea to deal with the Trump administration. As a businessperson, Trump likes to scare his opponents by taking shocking action and then take those actions back. You’ve got to be extremely accurate in your understanding of him. The most important thing is for South Korea, even though it’s not a great power, to have confidence as a “middle power.” What South Korea needs to do is exhibit an attitude of firm conviction and assurance on the importance of the alliance and on the challenges of dealing with North Korea in the future. Sucking up to Trump or making unconditional concessions would be unadvisable. Since this is a relationship between two countries, South Korea needs to act with confidence.

Hani: What do you think is the most important message to be conveyed during this first summit?

Oh: Moon needs to have a precise understanding of South Korea’s historical and geopolitical dilemma when he goes. He should tell Trump something like, it would be great if you could understand that we value the alliance and we want to remain on good terms with the US, but we’re facing a difficult challenge in dealing with North Korea. He should also say, we’re doing our best so work with us, and we’ve got to work through these things together, through dialogue and through deliberations that are more intense than ever before. In particular, I hope he says, North and South Korea are in close geographical proximity, like neighbors living on the first and second floor of a house, and so we can’t just fight each other in an antagonistic and hostile environment because we have to make up at some point – so I hope you’ll work with us while bearing that in mind. What I’m saying is that it’s extremely important for Moon to impress South Korea’s dilemma upon Trump while also sounding respectful to the US.

Hani: Should THAAD and the KORUS FTA be placed on the agenda of the first summit?

Oh: There’s no need for South Korea to be the first to bring up items that aren’t in South Korea’s interest. Agenda items will be brought up by the party that deems them to be urgent. It’s sufficient for South Korea to be thinking about how to respond. In addition, all Moon needs to do in the first summit is to talk about principles. Without the alliance with South Korea, the US will be nothing but a “Pacific power.” Whether on a geopolitical or a strategic level, Korea is critical, since it’s the peninsula that links the continent with the ocean. All Moon needs to do is to expound these principles.

Hani: There are a lot of people in South Korea who want THAAD to be withdrawn.

Oh: The THAAD deployment is nearly complete at the moment, and the deployment occurred while the country was preoccupied with other matters. If South Korea asks Trump to withdraw the system after it’s already been deployed, Trump could say, fine, and I’ll remove the rest of the US military as well. I think Trump would be capable of that.

Hani: China is still taking economic measures to retaliate against THAAD.

Oh: To the weak, China is strong; and to the strong, it’s weak. Unless South Korea responds to China with confidence and courage, it could become a political and psychological vassal state. I’m not proposing that South Korea oppose China – I’m saying that it needs to act with boldness based on an accurate understanding of China.

Hani: Many South Koreans think it’s in the national interest to follow the US regardless of the circumstances.

Oh: That’s a really wrong attitude. Countries have different levels of strength, but even small countries need to have a strategy related to their national dignity and status. During negotiations, fear should not keep South Korea from speaking its mind and asking for its rights. If it fails to speak its mind during the negotiations and then goes around afterward complaining that it was taken advantage of by a superpower, that’s a problem.

Hani: Conservative media in the US is deliberately undermining South Korea’s new government, and that could create division in the South Korean media.

Oh: Every country has its far right, its hardcore conservatives and its radical nationalists. It’s unnecessary to overreact to the viewpoints of a small biased minority. South Korea needs to make clear that it has suffered a lot as an US ally and that it doesn’t deserve to be bullied.

Hani: There are growing concerns that the US and China are ignoring South Korea on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Oh: That’s reflects a kind of inferiority complex. People who disparage themselves will never receive the respect of others. Strategy and pragmatic thinking emerge from those with a wellspring of cultural confidence and governmental, national and global experience. What South Korea needs right now is to become a vessel of surprising depth.

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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