Analysis: U.S.-South Korea: Uneasy Allies
Council on Foreign Relations
September 13, 2006
Prepared by: Carin Zissis
With South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun’s White House visiting this week with President Bush, some commentators say the longstanding alliance between the two nations needs mending. The two sides have made little progress in a proposed bilateral free trade agreement (Seattle Times), which would be the most far-reaching trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement. Another thorny issue involves the timing for the United States to hand over wartime control of U.S.-South Korean combined forces (Stars and Stripes). But the divide between Bush’s and Roh’s approaches to handling North Korea could be the most contentious issue. During the Asia-Europe meeting in Helsinki last week, Roh cautioned against making too much of the North Korean nuclear threat out of fear of damaging inter-Korean relations, saying Pyongyang’s missile tests in July were not evidence of a military danger (Korea Times).
Meanwhile, the State Department’s Christopher Hill, in Shanghai before heading to Seoul, said North Korea would get no further incentives (BBC) to take part in Six-Party Talks regarding its nuclear plan. Outcomes from the Bush-Roh meeting may be limited; during the visit of a South Korean cabinet member last week, the two sides agreed not to issue (Korea Times) any joint declarations at the conclusion of the summit.
Richard C. Bush III of the Brookings Institution offers his roundup of likely topics and desired outcomes of the summit, including a coordination of U.S.-Korean policy on China and Japan.
Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.
Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.
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