Roh Calls Maintenance of UN Army “Outdated”

Conflicts are intensifying between the Korean government’s independent diplomatic policy and the U.S. plan to transfer control of the Yongsan base as negotiations concerning the future of the U.S. military presence at Yongsan continue.

The conflicts are likely to further inflame the controversies over the changes in the Korean government’s diplomatic policies and the Korea-U.S. alliance in the midst of scandalous replacement of Diplomacy and Trade Minister Yoon Young-kwan.

“There are people, including some government officials, who want to keep the Yongsan base as it is now, but this is an old idea,” President Roh Moo-hyun said in a luncheon meeting with business journalists. “I think the base can fully perform its intended function even if it is moved to Pyeongtaek.”

President Roh also stated that the U.S. “wants the transfer (to Pyeongtaek) to go through, but some politicians and government officials are trying to delay this.”

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent a strong letter to Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-gil saying: “We will proceed with our plan to transfer the Yongsan U.S. military base.” An official at the Defense Ministry said that “Secretary Rumsfeld expressed the view in his letter that the transfer of the base is inevitable in the context of the transformation of U.S. military forces abroad.

The U.S. is concerned about the rise in anti-American sentiment in Korea if it decides to keep the base in the middle of central Seoul, which shows a shift in U.S. policy away from the previous practice of prioritizing security in the Korea-U.S. relationship.

As a result, concerns are increasing over security and the possibility that foreign capital will depart Korea after the transfer, but the government is showing a different stance on the issue.

Security Advisor to the President Ra Jong-il said in a press conference with Pyeonghaw Broadcasting on January 16 that “the U.N. army and the Korea-U.S. army will move south of the Han River, and we cannot say that the security will be jeopardized.”

Meanwhile, the Korea and the U.S. delegations are discussing whether or not the U.N. army and the joint army should remain in the Sixth Future of the Korea-U.S. Alliance meetings in Honolulu, Hawaii on January 16, but the opinion gap has not narrowed between two countries.

“We asked the U.S. to leave the U.N. army and the joint army at the defense ministry site in Yongsan, but the U.S. insisted on transferring their headquarters, only leaving the offices of the Commanding Officer, the Deputy Commanding Officer and 50 other officials,” said Cha Young-koo, head delegate and Policy Director of Korea’s Defense Ministry. “We could accept this if the U.S. persistently insists on this position.”

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com