East-West panel welcomes new focus on Korea
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Korean studies experts see the North Korean nuclear crisis not only as worrisome evidence of armament plans that go beyond mere posturing, but also as a sign that the United States is beginning to take its relations with North and South more seriously.
The experts convened yesterday at the East-West Center for a three-day international conference, "Enhancing the Partnership Between Korea and the United States in the 21st Century."
The conference, part of observances marking 100 years of Korean immigration, was planned before current events rocketed Korea into the news spotlight, said Charles Morrison, president of the East-West Center.
But rather than cringing over what would seem an awkward pairing of a centennial event with political controversy, a panel of the conference's experts agreed that the unanticipated coincidence created a perfect opportunity for high-level rethinking of U.S.-Korean relations.
"The timing was perfect," said Hong Koo Lee, who heads the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and formerly served as South Korean prime minister and ambassador to the United States. "The crisis has made both Koreans and Americans review our partnership. The centennial came just in time to furnish a very firm basis to examine our very close relationship."
Panelists — who also included Victor D. Cha, chairman of Georgetown University's D.S. SongiKorea Foundation; Jang Jip Choi, director of Korea University's Asiatic Research Center; and Edward Schultz, director of the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Hawai'i — acknowledged various explanations for North Korea's defiance over its suspected nuclear weapons program.
"They have an economy that is on the ropes," Schultz said. "They're facing massive starvation. What do they have to bolster themselves?
"If they use this nuclear threat to create fear, the Western powers may begin to take them seriously. They feel we are constantly sloughing them off. This is one way to get our attention."
Lee believes that both sides will sit down within a few months or sooner to arrive at a peaceful solution, but Cha interpreted recent events as more ominous.
Cha agreed that such posturing is "traditional North Korean coercive bargaining," but he maintained that "the succession of provocations" by North Korea — forcing out inspectors, disabling cameras — signals a desire to abandon its 1994 deal with the United States that froze its nuclear program.
"They're not interested in negotiating," Cha said. "What they want is a breakout strategy — acquiring as many nuclear weapons as they can by spring."
The panel agreed that Washington also needs to heed signals from Seoul that many South Koreans, especially the younger citizens who came of age long after the Korean War, aren't happy with the level of U.S. military presence in their country.
"There have been important changes in the U.S.-Korean relationship, causing younger generations to think in a new way," Choi said.
Rhetoric from U.S. leaders hasn't helped much, said Cha, who pointed to President Bush's speech in which he aligned North Korea with the "axis of evil."
Administration officials since have sounded more conciliatory in the national news media, he said, calling it a hopeful sign that the troubled relationships can be addressed.
With the Korean community in the United States today totaling 2 million — including Korean Americans as well as students from Korea — U.S.-Korean ties are difficult to ignore, Lee said.
"We have done so much in the last 100 years," he said. "We can do so much more in the next century."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8053.
