THE RISING EAST
Bush's skipping South Korea points to shaky relations
| • | Map: The president's Pacific tour |
By Richard Halloran
The glaring omission in President George Bush's journey to Asia is a stop in South Korea, which speaks volumes to the sorry state into which relations between Washington and Seoul have plunged.
The president, whose trip began in Japan and the Philippines on Friday, is scheduled to visit Thailand and Australia, with which the United States has security treaties. He plans stops in Singapore, with which the United States has an informal alliance, and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation in which the United States seeks to encourage the campaign against terror. Only South Korea, with which Washington has a security treaty and in which 37,000 American troops are deployed, has been left off the itinerary.
Associated Press
Moreover, this is the first time in memory an American president has traveled to Japan and not South Korea. Given the historic animosity between the two, the United States usually tries to be even-handed in its dealings with each.
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush boarded Air Force One on Thursday for an Asia tour that excludes South Korea. Among the likely reasons for the omission are disagreements over troops for Iraq.
The reasons for excluding Seoul are evident: Rampaging South Korean anti-Americanism, concern for Bush's security, lukewarm South Korean support for the United States in Iraq, differences in approach to North Korea, and anxiety over the stability of President Roh Moo-hyun's government.
The president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, sought to be reassuring when she briefed the press in Washington: "Let me just say that we have no really stronger alliance than the alliance we have with South Korea." That seemed to be diplomatic double-speak intended to paper over the quarrels.
Bush headed to Bangkok, Thailand, for a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, where Rice said he intends to emphasize "the need to put security at the heart of APEC's mission because prosperity and security are inseparable."
In Bangkok, Bush is scheduled to meet with Roh on the sidelines of the APEC gathering.
South Korea pledged earlier this month to send more troops to Iraq but did not specify how many or whether they would be combat or noncombat forces. Seoul has been reluctant to send the troops Washington has requested, in part because of opposition at home.
Roh's chief adviser for foreign affairs, Ban Ki-moon, told reporters in Seoul that the meeting "will be a chance for President Roh to explain the government's position as the issue of dispatching troops to Iraq has become a key security issue." That seemed to be political double-speak intended to skim over South Korean opposition to the deployment.
U.S. politics most likely played a part in the decision to skip Seoul. Bush, already under fire for his stance in Iraq and heading into a re-election campaign, does not want American voters to see televised pictures of frenzied anti-American demonstrations.
Moreover, Bush is evidently skeptical of Roh, who campaigned a year ago with a stridently anti-American posture. As a South Korean scholar has written of Roh: "He was not ashamed of being anti-American."
About the time Roh took office in February, however, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld suggested American forces be reduced or withdrawn from South Korea. Since then, the United States has begun to move its headquarters out of Seoul and reposition its troops from posts between the demilitarized zone and Seoul to garrisons well south of Seoul. Their duties will also change from helping to defend South Korea to preparing for missions elsewhere in Asia.
That threat produced a change as Roh and his associates urged the Yankees not to go home. Roh underscored that point during his first trip to Washington in May, but a 36-minute summit meeting, cursory remarks in the White House's Rose Garden and a routine joint declaration did not provide much substance.
Bush and Roh agree North Korea must abandon its nuclear ambitions, but disagree on how to achieve that. The American takes a hard line, the South Korean, a softer approach. U.S. officials are watching the South-North talks taking place in Pyongyang, wondering if the South will agree to something the United States would not like.
The Bush administration is worried about Roh's political longevity because the South Korean leader is in serious trouble. He has rejected an offer by his Cabinet to resign to deflect criticism directed at him, but has called for a referendum on his rule, saying he would resign if the voters did not support him.
Rice, asked for a reaction, wisely stayed away from that question. "This is a matter for the South Korean government," she said. "Because it's a vibrant democracy, I'm certain that South Korea can figure this one out."
Richard Halloran is a former New York Times correspondent in Asia and Washington. Reach him at oranhall@hawaii.rr.com.
