hankyoreh

Canada

At the South Korea-U.S. summit in Toronto on Saturday (local time), President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama reached agreements on two major issues, which included the delay in the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) and “adjusting” the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). It is highly probable that the adjustment to the FTA mentioned by Obama will be a virtual renegotiation involving South Korean concessions in the beef and automotive industries. As a result, criticism has mounted that the two leaders struck a deal, trading operational control for the KORUS FTA.

Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) senior secretary for public affairs Lee Dong-kwan denied a trade. Lee stated during a briefing that the operational control and the FTA have nothing to do with one another, and that South Korea would not concede more in the FTA based on a delay to the transfer of operational control.

Kim Sung-hwan, Cheong Wa Dae senior secretary for foreign affairs and security, said in response to concerns that South Korea would have to pay a price for the request and agreement to delay the transfer of operational control that thus far, the United States has not made any requests during talks.

Obama revealed specifically during the talks that he would ask for Congress to ratify the KORUS FTA next year after the agreement is adjusted by November of this year. The Cheong Wa Dae in turn stressed this was good news for the South Korean government. A Cheong Wa Dae official said in the event that the FTA receives adjustments, it will not be in a manner that is favorable only to the United States and disadvantageous to South Korea. He said it would involve win-win negotiations.

During the summit, however, the United States appeared to pressure South Korea to make adjustments by November to those parts of the FTA the United States has to date voiced dissatisfaction while accepting the South Korean government’s request to delay the transfer of operational control.

The Cheong Wa Dae stressed that they would not renegotiate to correct the FTA itself, but rather would hold working-level talks to adjust the agreement. The general prediction, however, has been that it remains highly probable that in the end, they will boost the economic interests of the United States while making changes to the beef and auto industry issues. This is also a reversal of the government’s stance to date that there would be no changes whatsoever to the content of the agreement. Appearing before the National Assembly in November, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan was asked by ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Lawmaker Nam Kyung-pil whether the government’s position was that it would not alter the text of the FTA agreement, but minute adjustments or additional agreement were possible. Yu responded by saying no.

On the other hand, in the event that the transfer of wartime operational control to South Korea is delayed three years and seven months from the original date of 2012, the economic burden the United States would have to endure is not great. From a military perspective as well, government officials have said that in the event that the transfer is pushed back to Dec. 1, 2015, the United States would not have to make changes to its global military strategy. Instead, there is concern that due to the delay, South Korea would grow weaker in the virtual renegotiation of the FTA and future talks on defense cost sharing, deploying South Korean troops overseas and weapons sales.

It also appears there will be greater controversy over the attitude of the government, which has dealt with the far-reaching issue of wartime operational control through secret negotiations and abrupt diplomacy. The Cheong Wa Dae, the Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry have stated up until recently that there was no change in the plan to transfer command in 2012. Despite a three-year delay having been virtually agreed upon, Cheong Wa Dae officials, when asked by the National Assembly on June 24 whether there would be discussions of delaying the transfer during the upcoming Lee-Obama summit, said they were still in the midst of negotiations.

In response to this criticism, Kim Sung-hwan said during a briefing that the two nations have held under-the-table discussions since the beginning of the year, but they did not make these talks public to avoid controversy over important security matters that had yet to be decided. He said he was sorry he could not explain what was happening because the United States, too, did not want the talks made public ahead of time.

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