ed Envoys to China

Park needs new and proactive approach toward Beijing

President–elect Park Geun-hye’s plan to send a delegation of special envoys, led by Kim Moo-sung, to China next week is creating subtle ripples in diplomatic circles. The mission, the first group of envoys to be sent by Park since her election victory on Dec. 19, will meet with China’s incoming leader Xi Jinping and other leaders.

Park’s spokesman Park Sun-kyoo denied any political significance regarding the visit, saying the trip is at the request of China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun who visited Seoul last week to deliver a message from Xi to Park.

Yet speculation is swirling that Park may seek to deviate from Seoul’s traditional diplomacy path that overwhelmingly focuses on Washington and puts top priority on improving relations with Beijing.

Park’s choice of China as the first destination is peculiar, given that almost all previous governments sent envoys first to the U.S. or dispatched delegations to the so-called four powers, including Japan and Russia, all at the same time. In fact, Park visited Beijing five years ago in her capacity as a special envoy of then President-elect Lee Myung-bak.

Having Kim, a political bigwig who served as head of Park’s election strategy office, lead the delegation is also interpreted as Park’s determination to strengthen cooperative ties with China in all areas throughout her five-year tenure. That Prof. Han Seok-hee of Yonsei University is among the delegates may be indicative of the President-elect’s new diplomatic initiative because he has voiced the need for equidistant diplomacy between the U.S. and China.

There is no need to stretch the meaning of the delegation’s China visit but Seoul needs a new and proactive diplomatic approach toward Beijing, especially in order to stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs. During the outgoing Lee Myung-bak administration, Seoul-Washington ties ``couldn’t be better,’’ as President Lee made special efforts to boost their alliance in response to diplomatic fiascos from his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, who was obsessed with South Korea’s role of balancer in Northeast Asia.

In contrast, China was undervalued because Seoul-Beijing ties were focused largely on economic issues. The consequences were on-and-off discords across areas such as politics and diplomacy and China remained lukewarm to international calls for sanctions against North Korea over armed provocations.

On Wednesday, Park reiterated her resolve not to tolerate the North’s nuclear weapons program during her meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, but no one will dispute that without China, it could be all but impossible to stop the impoverished nation’s nuclear arms and missile ambitions.

At a time when Northeast Asia is becoming unstable due to America’s pivot toward Asia, China’s greater assertiveness and Japan’s rightward shift, South Korea needs to enhance its diplomatic capabilities. And the framework should be to strengthen its strategic cooperative partnership with China on the basis of a firm alliance with the United States.