Korea’s New Conservative President to Take a Firmer Line with North

(by Patrick Goodenough, Feb. 25, 2008, CNSNews.com) – A decade of left-wing rule in South Korea ended on Monday as a new conservative president took the helm. Lee Myung-bak has pledged to bolster relations with the U.S. and is pressing North Korea to resolve the nuclear weapons crisis.

“Once North Korea abandons its nuclear program and chooses the path to openness, we can expect to see a new horizon in inter-Korean cooperation,” Lee said in his inaugural speech in Seoul.

Guests at the event included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will hold talks with the incoming administration, and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

Lee’s victory in elections last December brought the promise of a closer alignment between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo as they attempt to bring the “six-party” process aimed at denuclearizing North Korea to a successful conclusion.

The other parties rounding out the talks, Russia and China, have tended to be more sympathetic towards Pyongyang, and a more hardnosed stance by South Korea may help to tilt the balance in favor of the U.S.-Japanese position.

Former President Roh Moo-hyun, like his predecessor Kim Dae-jung, pursued a policy of engagement towards North Korea that critics said was too willing to overlook Kim Jong-il’s provocative actions — and his regime’s human rights abuses — in the interests of inter-Korean harmony.

Lee has distanced himself from that approach, telling an earlier press conference that he would not “tip-toe” around the North Koreans. At the same time, he held out an offer of generous assistance on Monday, provided the North ends its nuclear ambitions.

That assistance, he said, would help to raise the per-capita income of North Koreans to $3,000 in a decade. (Financial institutions estimate the North’s per capita income at around $900, less than one-tenth of that in the South.)

“The leaders of the two Koreas must contemplate what they can do to make the lives of all 70 million Koreans happy,” Lee said.

Progress in resolving the nuclear issue has been slow, however.

The six-party process is stuck over North Korea’s failure to meet a Dec. 31 deadline for disabling three specified nuclear facilities and declaring all of its nuclear weapons programs.

The deadline was set in a deal formalized in October. In exchange for North Korea meeting its commitments, the other parties to the agreement undertook to provide fuel and other aid, as well as diplomatic concessions.

While Pyongyang hasn’t met its undertaking, it is also complaining that the U.S. is delaying on starting a process to remove North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terror (One of the criticisms of the October deal was the vagueness about sequencing of the various commitments.)

Christopher Hill, the U.S. representative at the six-party talks, met with his North Korean counterpart in Beijing last week in a bid to break the impasse. He reiterated the requirement that North Korea make a “complete and correct” declaration of its nuclear programs.

Alliance

Roh’s efforts to engage with North Korea frequently put Seoul at odds with its most important military ally, and relations with the U.S. were shaky at times during the former human rights lawyer’s five-year term in office.

At the same time, Roh contributed Korean forces to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, despite considerable domestic opposition to the move.

In his inaugural speech, Lee pledged to improve ties with the U.S. “Based on the deep mutual trust that exists between the two peoples, we will also strengthen our strategic alliance with the United States,” he said.

Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed on the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War, to help defend South Korea against aggression from its communist neighbor’s 1.1 million-strong army. The U.S. numbers, once as high as 37,000, are currently at around 28,000, and are due to drop to 25,000 as part of a global force repositioning program.

Another major challenge for both governments will be to secure legislative approval for a free trade agreement, signed last June.

Korea is Asia’s third-largest economy and the world’s 10th biggest, and the FTA, according to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, would be “the most commercially significant free trade agreement the United States has concluded in nearly 20 years.”

Supporters of the FTA hope the U.S. Congress will ratify it before its summer recess, given that the focus of the second half of the year will be on November elections — and that both Democratic contenders for the presidency oppose the deal. Ratification entails a 90-day process, so lawmakers would need to act in March if it is to be achieved by the summer.

On the Korean side, legislative timetable difficulties are also a factor. Lee’s conservative Grand National Party (GNP) had hoped to get parliamentary approval before Monday’s inauguration, but the liberal pro-Roh United New Democratic Party, which holds the majority in the country’s National Assembly, wants to hold off until after legislative elections in April.

That is only one of the early headaches facing Lee, who has cited boosting the economy and fostering national unity as major issues on his agenda.

The former business executive has also fended off controversy over some cabinet appointments, and accusations of involvement in a 2001 share manipulation scandal remain damaging, despite an inquiry having cleared him of the allegations last week.

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