It was not without experiencing a bitter aftertaste that Koreans watched the U.S. announce that President Barack Obama will visit Korea “too” in April. The decision was the result of months of fierce efforts by Korean diplomats to keep the American leader from only visiting Japan. Some U.S. officials reportedly compared the two Asian allies as “twin brothers fighting every day to have more cookies.”
The government’s nervousness about Obama’s possible skipping of Seoul on his Asian tour is understandable, at a time when Korea and Japan are clashing with each other on almost every issue. Still, most Koreans would have liked to have seen their government behave more coolly and confidently during the three-way diplomatic courting.
What changed Obama’s mind might either have been his Japanese counterpart, who paid tribute to war criminals in defiance of U.S. advice, and/or Chinese President Xi Jinping’s scheduled visit to Korea.
Whatever the reasons were, now that Obama has fixed his itinerary, at stake is not the process for realizing his fourth visit to Korea in five years, but how Seoul should prepare to maximize the diplomatic benefits of the summit between President Park Geun-hye and her U.S. counterpart.
It would be the worst scenario for Korea in this regard if President Obama, possibly feeling sorry for splitting his original three-day schedule in Tokyo to also give some moments to Seoul, raises the hand of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Obama, for instance, may endorse Abe’s plan to sharply expand the role of the Self-Defense Force, which the Japanese leader says is aimed at more “positively” promoting peace, but Japan’s Asian neighbors suspect as the revival of Japanese militarism.
The U.S. leader could also tell Seoul to bury the historical hatchet and reconcile with its previous colonizer, stressing the future is more important than the past ― meaning it’s time the three allies formed a tight front against their common adversary, North Korea ― as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry did here Thursday.
That may be a proposal Korea would find hard to reject. But Seoul should make it clear that the current alienated relationship with Japan is almost entirely due to the regressive and nationalist Japanese leader and his government, before and during Obama’s stay here. It would be best if the U.S. leader correctly grasps the situation in this part of the world and do what he should under such circumstances: rebuke Premier Abe and put a brake on the Japanese leader’s unbridled historical whitewashing and Japan’s resurgence as a regional threat.
That may of course be impossible in the courteous world of diplomacy, but the U.S. leader is required to send the message unequivocally, if subtly, not least because it was America that has made Japan what it is today in the postwar political structure.
It will also be vital for Seoul and Washington to reaffirm their airtight alliance against Pyongyang’s military threats. South Korea can drastically ease such security concerns if President Park is able to persuade the U.S. visitor to resume multilateral efforts to denuclearize the North, instead of sitting and watching the latter expand its nuclear arsenal, under the euphemistic “strategic patience,” or do-nothing, policy.
Park of course should show an example by taking a bolder initiative in improving the inter-Korean relationship.
If Seoul fails to produce sufficient diplomatic results but makes more concessions in economy and trade as the price for the “hard-won” summit, many Koreans will be asking what all the fuss has been about.