As President Obama meets today with South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, how closely they agree on policy toward North Korea and whether they establish a good working relationship will be key to dealing with an increasingly dangerous new leadership in Pyongyang.
Visiting South Korea President Park Geun-hye lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 6. Op-ed contributors Gi-Wook Shin and David Straub write: 'It is time for a new approach, and the answer may lie in letting Seoul take the lead in dealing with Pyongyang....For that reason, President Park?s visit to Washington this week is vital to establishing the...policy consensus needed.'
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
EnlargeNorth Korea has toned down its threats since celebrating founding dictator Kim Il Sung?s birthday on April 15, and the Boston bombing has relegated North Korea to the inside pages. But the challenges North Korea poses for both Washington and Seoul remain as serious as ever.
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
That is why President Obama?s meeting today with South Korean President Park Geun-hye is especially important. This will be the newly inaugurated Ms. Park?s first summit with Mr. Obama. How closely they agree on policy toward Pyongyang and whether they establish a good working relationship will be key ? even more so than China?s long hoped-for role ? to dealing with an increasingly dangerous new North Korean leadership.
South Korea has become a major player in regional and even global affairs. With only 50 million people, it is the world?s sixth-largest exporter, and no country is more directly affected by North Korea?s actions.
Obama had a terrific relationship with Park?s predecessor, President Lee Myung-bak. The two men saw eye to eye on North Korea as well as on most other issues, and South Korea came to be seen by many Americans as an even better East Asian partner than Japan. Obama instantly hit it off with the exuberant Lee, making it possible for them to coordinate closely during several crises, including North Korea?s nuclear and missile tests and its two sneak attacks on the South in 2010 that killed 50 people.
Park represents the same conservative party as Lee but comes from a different faction and has brought in many new advisers. She has offered North Korea negotiations on confidence-building measures and said she would provide food aid, but, unlike Lee, without conditioning these on North Korea?s willingness to give up its nuclear weapons program.
So far, the North has spurned her initiatives, most recently moving to shut down the joint Kaesong industrial park that is the last remaining symbol of North-South cooperation. But Park has remained calm in the face of provocation, ready to revive cooperation if North Korea will give her the opportunity.
Park is also a different personality than Lee. Northeast Asia?s first female leader in modern times, she is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, Korea?s strongman during the 1960s and 1970s who oversaw the country?s dramatic economic development.
Her mother was assassinated by a North Korean agent in 1974, after which she acted as the nation?s first lady, only to have her father killed by his own intelligence chief amid popular demands for democratization in 1979. These experiences have made Park Geun-hye a reserved and formal person, but many feel she is also as firm and determined as her father.
beverly hilton roland martin whitney houston dead at 48 whitney houston dead 2012 whitney houston passed away heartbreak hotel don cornelius
No comments:
Post a Comment