In Need of Follow-Up measures by U.S. to Ally Rising Anti-American Sentiment in Korea

It has been known that in order to stop the spreading anti-American sentiment across the nation, the Korean government is planning to call for the U.S. side to come up with “follow-up measures” when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage comes to Korea on Dec.10.

Although the details of the follow-up measures were not unveiled yet, a government official said, “The government has been in a close consultation with the U.S. on the issue of the revision of the SOFA and has continuously conveyed the gravity of the recent anti-American movement such as candlelight vigil protests demanding U.S. President George Bush’s direct apology for the death of the two Korean girls.”

“Although the main purpose of the Armitage’s visit to Korea is to discuss the issues concerning the North Korean nuclear development program and a possible war against Iraq, we expect to give due consideration on the issue of the growing anti-American sentiment across the nation,” he added.

During the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State visit to Korea, he will pay a visit to President Kim Dae-jung and will have a back-to-back meeting with Choi Sung-hong, the Foreign Affairs and Commerce Minister and Lee jun, Defense Minister.

Park Sun-suk, presidential spokeswoman quoted the President as saying, “The Korean and the U.S. governments should made utmost efforts to ensure the mounting anti-American sentiment caused by the incident of the deaths of the two Korean girls not to undermine the solid foundation of the decade-long bilateral alliance,” when the President met with Daniel Inowei (Democratic Party, Hawai) and Ted Stephen (Republican Party, Alaska) on the Senate Appropriation Committee who are visiting Korea. The spokeswoman said that during the meeting with the two U.S. lawmakers, the President also asked for a close U.S. cooperation at a time when the two sides are trying to map out measures to prevent the recurrence of the similar accident and seek ways to improve the SOFA.

Meanwhile, Lee Kyue-tak and Chung Kyun-whan of the GNP and the MDP floor leaders respectively held a meeting and agreed to draw up a resolution bill to demand the amendment of the SOFA in the National Assembly.

To that end, the two floor leaders agreed on Dec.10 to hold a meeting of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Commerce Committee to check the development of the revision of the SOFA and government responses to the issue and pass the resolution bill in the plenary session of the National Assembly as early as within the month.

Yeon-Wook Jung Young-Sik Kim jyw11@donga.com spear@donga.com