Bush to Visit Seoul Amid Tight Security
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
U.S. President George W. Bush will arrive in South Korea Tuesday for a summit with President Lee Myung-bak, which will address a broader bilateral alliance.
It is Bush's third visit to South Korea following his previous trips in 2002 and 2005. Wednesday's summit will mark the third of its kind since Lee's inauguration in late February.
The Presidential Security Service (PSS) and police have been put on maximum alert, ahead of the U.S. President's two-day visit, a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
The PSS has established a special security team with the National Police Agency (NPA) and the U.S. Secret Service to maintain seamless security during the ``most important'' diplomatic event since the inauguration of the Lee government, the official said.
``Members of a special Korean and U.S. security service team have conducted joint training to brace for various crisis-management scenarios during Bush's stay,'' he said.
The team is paying special attention to possible incidents at rallies planned in central Seoul organized by progressive activists opposing Seoul's resumption of U.S. beef imports, he said.
The NPA plans to deploy a 7,000-strong contingent along Bush's routes, with about 16,000 riot police on stand-by to control anti-American protestors, he said.
Bush's visit comes after protests here over U.S. beef imports and a controversy over a mapping mistake by a U.S. state agency.
Thousands of people protested the resumption of U.S. beef imports, which had been banned over concern over mad cow disease. A naming of Dokdo as ``undesignated territory'' by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) added fuel to diplomatic tension between South Korea and Japan over the sovereignty of the South Korean islets.
Bush moved quickly to resolve the BGN change, ordering the agency to reinstate the status of Dokdo as Korean territory in the agency's database.
Public sentiment is largely tilting pro-American in South Korea, despite the months-long street protests, according to reports.
The Pew Global Attitudes Project reported in June that about 70 percent of South Koreans favored the United States, up from 58 percent in 2007.
During their talks, Lee and Bush are expected to discuss details on the future vision of the half-century Korea-U.S. alliance, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said.
Both leaders will issue a joint statement at the end of the summit, he said.
Among items on their agenda are North Korea's nuclear weapons program, inter-Korean relations, joint efforts to combat global terrorism and climate change, ratification of a bilateral free trade agreement and Seoul's joining the U.S. visa waiver program, said the spokesman.
The leaders are also expected to address possible changes in the role and mission of U.S. troops stationed here, he said.