By Tong Kim
Unlike a few months ago foreign policy platforms ― including positions on North Korea and the U.S.-Korea alliance ― do not really seem to matter now as the presidential election is closing in.
The campaigns issues are focused on the economy, education and corruption charges away from the issue of peace and security.
Mudslinging is rampant as expected. There seems to be no high road in this election. The average voter does not seem to support a candidate on a merit basis but on the basis of emotional disapproval against a candidate.
Foreign policy issues suffer from a downgrading of priority in the press. Any significant development on inter-Korean development or denuclearization hardly gets printed on the front pages of newspapers nowadays.
The voter's interest in foreign policy seems to have declined as an effect of diminishing return from a steady progress on the North Korean front since the Feb. 13 agreement in the six party talks. People seem to take the hard won progress for granted.
After last October's inter-Korean summit, the implementation of its agreement has been carried out in a seamless stream ― with the holding of a prime ministers meeting in Seoul and a defense ministerial meeting in Pyongyang.
These events were followed by a sudden visit to Seoul by the North's Workers Party director for the Unification Front Kim Yang-gun, who met with the South's unification minister and the national intelligence service director.
And there are some indications that the nominal head of state for North Korea, Kim Young-nam, on behalf of Chairman Kim Jong -il, might visit the South before the Dec. 19 election. If realized, this would put to sleep complaints against Kim Jong-il's failure to fulfill his promised return visit.
The announcement of U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill's planned visit to Pyongyang was treated as a two or three paragraph news story on an inconspicuous page by most newspapers in Seoul. Withstanding these positive prospects, the process of denuclearization still has a long way to go.
The next president's foreign policy will be critical to both the vital and strategic interests of South Korea, and it could affect U.S. interest as well.
That said, it is worth comparing the foreign policy platforms of the three major candidates, one of whom is most likely to win the election ― Lee Myung-bak, Lee Hoi-chang and Chung Dong-young. I will begin with the frontrunner in this column.
Lee Myung-bak's foreign policy platform is embodied in what is known as the ``MB Doctrine," announced almost a year ago when he was competing for the nomination of his Grand National Party (GNP).
The doctrine has not changed in principle, albeit the GNP's position has become somewhat flexible in the wake of the Bush administration's shift in North Korean policy and after visible progress was made in the six-party talks.
The front runner is now challenged by an ultra-right winger, Lee Hoi-chang, running as an independent, who alleges that Lee Myung-bak will be unable to bring through a desired change of government.
Lee Hoi-chang appears to be more attractive to the hardcore conservatives, who are adamantly opposed against the Roh Moo-hyun government from an ideological perspective.
Lee Myung-bak, who is seen by many as a moderate, pragmatic conservative, is holding on to the frontrunner's status, despite wild political charges and the on-going BBK investigation.
The frontrunner is firm on his foreign policy approach. His seven-point doctrine consists of:
(1) Complete denuclearization and opening of North Korea, urging Chairman Kim Jong-il's strategic decision.
(2) Pragmatic diplomacy based on a national consensus, as politics should stop at the water's edge.
(3) Strengthening of the ROK-U.S. alliance to protect and promote mutual interest based on the shared vales of democracy and market economy.
(4) Expansion of Asia diplomacy in partnership with other regional states to move toward the opening of an Asian era.
(5) Contribution to the global community as the world's 12th economy and a mature, responsible nation.
(6) Energy diplomacy to join the group of most advanced economic nations.
(7) Cultural diplomacy to capitalize Korea's soft power through mutual opening and exchanges in the region and the world.
Regarding the planned transfer of the wartime operational control from the Untied States to South Korea by April 2010, Lee Myung-bak's position is to reevaluate it if he wins the presidency.
He sees the current combined command structure as a key to the restoration and maintenance of a strong alliance, while accepting the need for alliance transformation to cope with the changing security environment on the Korean Peninsula and the region.
On North Korea, Lee Myung-bak prefers a ``thorough and flexible approach" to accomplish the successful implementation of the Sept. 19 statement of the six-party talks: ``thorough" to the principle of intolerance to North Korea's nuclear program and ``flexible" in response in the course of nuclear negotiation to implement the Sept. 19 statement.
Upon the completion of denuclearization, the frontrunner would offer an economic development plan for the impoverished North Korea. This plan pursues a 15 to 20 percent growth to bring up a per capita income to $3,000 for the North in 10 years.
This would require building more than 100 export businesses, each of which can export goods and services to the value of $3 million.
In addition, an ``MB" government would help North Korea create a financial resource pool of over $40 billion through loans from the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank, the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund of the South Korean government, direct investment from overseas, and support funds that would be available upon an improvement of North Korea's relations with Japan.
The humanitarian aspect of Lee Myung-bak's North Korean policy includes free travel by displaced families between the North and the South. Those aging families should be given a priority to visit their displaced families before they die.
If the North accepts this proposal, an ``MB" government would provide an appropriate economic aid package that would help improve North Korea's health and residential conditions and it would pay all the expenses to be incurred from the implementation of the visiting program.
In short, Lee Myung-bak's foreign policy platform is characterized by three priorities: resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue, strengthening of the Korea-U.S. alliance, and conditional assistance to the North upon denuclearization.
Tong Kim is former senior interpreter at the U.S. State Department and now a research professor with Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University and a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University SAIS. He can be reached at tong.kim@prodigy.net.