Odd Man Out

Seoul Should Hurry to Restore Lost Diplomatic Leverage

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said Friday the strengthened alliance between America and Korea was the ``cornerstone'' of Asian peace and stability.

One could class this remark as just more diplomatic rhetoric, but the comment hits the mark in that the Korean Peninsula is one of the few regions in the world ― let alone in East Asia ― where two hostile states are still technically at war.

Obama's remark, which came during his first telephone conversation with President Lee Myung-bak, can also be interpreted as expressing the new U.S. leader's hope that Seoul will play a more positive role in Asia, for instance by dispatching troops to countries mired in military conflict such as Afghanistan.

This is a hard pill to swallow for President Lee, who will find it difficult to persuade Koreans to resend soldiers to the war-torn South Asian country, from which Seoul withdrew its troops in the wake of a hostage nightmare last year.

It would be natural for Korea to play a greater political role congruous with its enhanced economic power, by augmenting its operations as part of international peacekeeping forces in troubled parts of the world. Seoul needs to be more cautious, however, in responding to calls for help in conflicts that can be viewed as local in nature, including the U.S. war against terrorism, which is gaining varied levels of support from different governments. The ultimate criteria should be how justifiable its causes are and, if so, the sacrifice each participant should make.

Korean officials' interests are naturally drawn more to how the new U.S. administration will deal with North Korea, including the communist regime's denuclearization. And their greatest concern is being left out in the cold in a possible rapid thaw of frozen ties between Washington and Pyongyang.

A summit between Obama and Kim Jong-il anytime soon may be a premature idea but no one knows exactly what the next U.S. president will do for a breakthrough in one of the most estranged diplomatic relationship on the planet. Some scenarios even presume the new White House may try to reverse course, by normalizing ties first to automatically disarm the isolationist regime.

Analysts here regard the North Korean media's frequent photo releases of their reportedly convalescing leader as Pyongyang's signal that Kim is able and willing to accept any olive branch from the Democratic administration.

Most hard to understand is what makes the Lee administration so hesitant to get out of its own diplomatic snare. It was somewhat understandable for conservative Lee to try to differ from his liberal predecessor by becoming harsher on the North, which was also aimed in part to take the initiative in inter-Korean rivalry.

But nine months are enough for Lee to have been engaged in a war of nerves for nothing. In the worst case scenario, Lee will follow in the footsteps of the former Kim Young-sam administration, which was left with a bill for a light-water reactor while never playing a corresponding role in the nuclear settlement.

The change in U.S. political power is both a cause and opportunity for Seoul to turn around and regain lost diplomatic leverage. Nothing but the Lee administration's unproductive, shortsighted policy is marginalizing Seoul in regional diplomacy.