[Editorial] Time to Tune Up the Diplomacy Line with the U.S.

President George Walker Bush’s victory speech yesterday can be summed up as “national unity” and “a stronger U.S.” It should be also seen as his resolution to heal a divided U.S. as his domestic mandate, and to implement his international agenda with all resources at his disposal as his global mandate. U.S. voters have paved the way for Bush to do so by giving more congressional and senate seats to the GOP.

Korea’s U.S. diplomacy should be refocused on a stronger second term of Bush. There has been considerable criticism about U.S. unilateralism as seen in the war in Iraq. It is the reality that Bush’s power should be accepted as it is. Since the Roh Moo-hyun government took office, U.S.-Korea relations reached their nadir and managed to rebound recently. The government should not repeat its transitional errors when it attempted to adopt itself to the first term of Bush.

The U.S. has been our ally for more than 50 years. The government should adopt pragmatic diplomacy and a security line to maximize national interests by lining up with the U.S. It should not shake Korea-U.S. relations again by raising an issue of independence or making unrealistic immature postures in a move to collude with demands from some quarters of the public. It should consider the reason why at this point the opposition party demands a reshuffle of U.S. policymakers.

U.S.’s global dominance is bound to continue. Even in Japan, as the prime minister openly declared support for Bush’s re-election, expectations are rising that a new honeymoon will start between Japan and the U.S. The government is in need of a measure that allows it to make its own voice on Korea issues by prying between the U.S and Japan. It should detect the width and depth of U.S. mobilizations of force against North Korea when dialogue fails to address the North Korean nuclear issue.

In terms of the stability and continuity of Korea-U.S. relations, Bush’s re-election won’t be disadvantageous to Korea. The government could reaffirm the relations with the trust it has earned in the solution of many diplomatic issues such as its dispatch of troops to Iraq. We hope the Korea-U.S. summit, set to be hold in the next two week, will be the first step that would bring qualitative changes to the Korea-U.S. alliance when Bush gears his country for his second term.