By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
The recent public protests in South Korea against the U.S. beef import deal are testing the half-century alliance between the two countries, but it can be an opportunity for the allies to move their ties forward, experts said.
In a letter to the New York Times published on June 17, Donald Gregg, chairman of the Korea Society, said without strong alliance with South Korea, the U.S. influence in Asia would be ``vastly diminished.''
``This is a delicate issue that needs to be handled with sensitivity by leaders in Seoul and Washington, so that the question of beef does not derail the important free trade agreement with South Korea being considered by Congress,'' Gregg said.
Gregg, a former U.S. ambassador to Korea, noted that modern Korean society still has deep roots in its agricultural traditions.
``Koreans can get very defensive about any issue that seems to threaten the livelihood of grandpa and grandma back on the farm, even if this causes them to pay twice as much for inefficiently produced Korean beef as they would for foreign imports,'' he said.
Gregg said the beef issue should be placed in a broader context, citing Seoul's assistance during U.S. wars over the past decades. ``South Korea is a tremendous ally of the United States.''
South Korea sent more than 300,000 troops to help us in Vietnam, was a quick and generous supporter of Desert Storm in 1991, and for several years had the third largest deployment of troops in Iraq, following the U.S. invasion of that country five years ago, he said.
Joseph Winder, former head of the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute, called on the Bush administration to help President Lee Myung-bak prevent the beef issue from hurting the alliance between the two countries.
In a recent letter to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. security and defense research institute, Winder said, ``A major U.S. ally in Northeast Asia faces a raging crisis that was triggered by an action that its new and inexperienced government took under political pressure from the United States at the highest political level.''
The Bush administration's response was, however, ``This is your domestic political problem, you fix it!'' he said.
Winder said the current outpouring of frustration and fury that was triggered by the agreement on beef imports is no longer, if it ever was, about science.
``It is about feelings and emotions, and until these feelings and emotions are assuaged, the crisis will continue to escalate with potentially dangerous consequences for the overall U.S.-Korea alliance and relationship,'' he said.