South Nuke Response Disappoints U.S.

U.S. experts on the Korean peninsula were greatly disappointed in the tepid way that South Korea dealt with North Korea’s nuclear test in October last year, and perceive that it will be difficult to hope for improvement or development in the Korea-U.S. alliance between the current governments. This was stated in a private report prepared by five foreign affairs and national security experts and university professors who are members of the National Intelligence Service and State-run Research Institute, and was based on the results of their in-depth interviews of 24 Korean Peninsula experts when they visited the United States for one week at the end of last year. This report is known to have been passed on to the government’s core foreign affairs and national security ministries and offices as well as related research institutes as a ‘policy reference.’

According to this report which this newspaper obtained on January 18, the United States holds a critical opinion on the way the Korean government acted out business as usual with North Korea, gave the impression that they were taking the North’s side under the excuse that a war on the Korean peninsula must be prevented, and that they are trying to prevent U.S. sanctions towards the North, despite the fact that North Korea carried out a nuclear test

The U.S. experts that were interviewed include former U.S Ambassador to Korea, Thomas Hubbard; former deputy U.S. Ambassador to Korea, Evans Revere; former Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Nonproliferation, Robert Einhorn; former Special Envoy to North Korea, Charles Pritchard; former Korea country director at the U.S. Department of State, David Straub and John Hopkins University professor, Don Oberdorfer.

This report stated, “The U.S. experts that accepted the interview showed skeptical responses in regards to the chance that North Korea will abandon its nuclear program.” Also, “They predicted that because the nuclear program is North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s last measure to maintain his regime, he will try to sustain it as long as possible.”

Furthermore this report wrote, “Almost all of the experts that accepted the interview commented that as the U.S. openly expressed their disappointment towards the way the Korean government responded to North Korea’s nuclear test and consider the matter to be serious, there is a need to mollify this.” They suggested to the Korean government that, “If the South Korean government’s policy towards North Korea in relation to Gaesong Industrial Complex and Mt. Geumgang tour project is not amendable, then they should at least declare whole participation in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and cleverly work their way through it.”

Also, the report informed, “(Within the United States) it is judged that the best policy is to manage S. Korea-U.S relations so they do not further deteriorate.” It added, “Republican and conservative camp figures perceive the chances of Korea-U.S. relations improving to be very slim, and it appears that they are now even refraining from getting wrought up or criticizing.”

Derek Mitchell, a former Special Assistant for Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of Defense and current Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), remarked, “The United States thinks that South Korea is drifting away from our alliance and South Korea and the United States do not appear to be going in the same direction.” He added, “United States’ disappointment in South Korea is not of tentative characteristic, but rather it is perceived to be a problem in South Korea’s basic orientation.”

In regards to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the report recommended that, “Negotiation conditions will become even more difficult if the anti-FTA demonstrations become more intense, therefore the Korean government must take appropriate action.”

On the topic of transferring wartime operation control, the report stated, “It should not be carried out unintentionally because of consideration of domestic politics in both Korea and the U.S.”

taewon_ha@donga.com