Foreign Policy Will Be Economy-Oriented, Less Ideological

Rep. Chung Mong-joon, right, President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s special envoy, poses with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington D.C., in this file photo taken Jan. 21.

/ Courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

The basic foreign policy of President-elect Lee Myung-bak is that he will seek the national interest in the international community based on strengthened relations with the United States.

Unlike the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyu administrations, Lee made it clear that his administration would drop the engagement or so-called ``sunshine'' policy toward North Korea, adding that reciprocity would be applied in inter-Korean relations.

Lee also prefers to solve the most pending issue ― North Korea's nuclear weapons ― through the six-party talks. But his new North Korea policy may face challenges as it could cause the communist country to change its attitude to the nuclear talks.

Observers said Lee's foreign policy was clearly taking shape as ``pragmatic diplomacy'' one month after he was elected president.

The briefing to the presidential transition team made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Jan. 4 also showed the diplomacy direction of the incoming government.

The ministry proposed three visions in foreign affairs: Korea will enhance ``peace,'' ``prosperity'' and ``national status'' under a slogan that it will become an advanced country through pragmatic diplomacy.

It briefed the transition team on seven doctrines to achieve this vision.

They are a strategic North Korea policy for its denuclearization and transformation; pragmatic diplomacy for the national interest; a strengthened Seoul-Washington alliance; the expansion of Asian diplomacy; an expanded contribution to the international community; the maximization of energy diplomacy; and boosting cultural diplomacy.

The doctrines suggest that the nation's foreign policy will prioritize the North's denuclearization while conducting diplomacy for the national interest.

Officials of the ministry said they prepared the briefing, reflecting Lee's presidential pledges of reestablishing foreign policy.

Ever since he joined the presidential election, Lee has pushed the ``MB doctrine, named after his initials, meaning that if North Korea abandons its nuclear weapons and opens its doors to the world, Lee together with international community will provide aid to the Stalinist country. He is sure that North Korea could achieve a GDP per capita of $3,000 within 10 years under his plan.

Expansion of Foreign Ministry

The pragmatic diplomacy requires a bigger Foreign Ministry.

According to government reorganization plan unveiled by the transition team on Jan. 16, the ``Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Unification'' will be in charge of foreign affairs and security.

Though the new ministry was created in order to forge synergy by combining foreign affairs and unification, the Foreign Ministry will virtually absorb the Unification Ministry.

Under the Roh government, the Foreign and Unification ministries, and the presidential office all participated in the nation's foreign policy decision-making process.

The National Security Council under Cheong Wa Dae was preeminent in foreign affairs, which spawned conflicting policies between government offices. Conflicts abounded on the maritime border in the West Sea, dubbed the Northern Limit Line (NLL); and U.N. resolutions on human rights in North Korea.

The incoming government will prevent this kind of discord by emphasizing the Foreign Ministry's control of all external affairs including North Korea.

However, some experts have expressed concern over the move asserting that inter-Korean relations are not the same as those with other countries.

Officials at the Foreign Ministry were also concerned about the unification issues they will have to deal with.

``We are not all happy with the idea to have the Unification Ministry. On the contrary, some of us feel concern over how to approach inter-Korean relations, which are different from general foreign relations,'' an official there said on the condition of anonymity.

Scholars said the change in the North Korea policy has made Pyongyang cautious over inter-Korean relations. North Korea has so far been silent over Lee's victory.

``North Korea is probably watching the situation with concern over the conservative President-elect,'' said Paik Hak-soon, director of the North Korean studies program at the Sejong Institute in Seoul.

Paik said North Korea is worried about how Lee and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush, who is also conservative, will cooperate on North Korean issues considering their recent phone talks and Lee's position on North Korea.

Meanwhile, the government reorganization plan requires approval of the National Assembly. So far, the largest United New Democratic Party is opposed to combining the Foreign Affairs and Unification ministries.

Reciprocity-Based North Korea Policy

The incoming government links inter-Korean economic cooperation to North Korea's nuclear weapons issue. Rep. Park Jin of the main opposition Grand National Party, who heads the foreign affairs policy committee of the transition team said inter-Korean economic cooperation will not progress without progress in the denuclearization.

Park even said that some agreements reached in the second inter-Korean summit in October, 2007 will not be realized if North Korea fails to denuclearize itself.

Plus, the diplomat-turned-politician said the South may stop annual humanitarian aid to the North such as rice and fertilizer unless North Korea cooperates on the resolution of South Koreans kidnapped by the North.

Since the first inter-Korean summit in June, 2000, South Korea has provided 400,000 tons of rice and some 300,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea. But it is not yet decided how much South Korea will give this year.

``Though we stuck to sunshine policy, North Korea conducted a nuclear weapons experiment,'' Park said. ``In the end, the sunshine policy failed.''

Partnership With US, Japan

The most important partner for the Lee administration will be the United States and foreign policy will be made in reflection of that.

President-elect Lee met U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow a day after he won the presidential election on Dec. 19 and he agreed to visit Washington on the phone with U.S. President George W. Bush later in the day.

Washington also seems to think the time has come to see more cooperative relations with Seoul.

When the Foreign Ministry briefed its policy to the transition team, the ministry spent most of the time discussing ways to improve Seoul-Washington relations. The ministry confessed there was a lack of cooperation between the two countries regarding the second inter-Korean summit.

The next most important partner would be Japan as President-elect Lee stressed the restoration of Korea-U.S.-Japan triangular cooperation.

Economic Diplomacy

President-elect Lee also emphasizes economic diplomacy after learning its importance from his experience in foreign countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction.

The economic diplomacy is part of his presidential pledge.

As a first step, Lee will send a special envoy to the Davos Forum, an annual meeting of top business leaders, national political leaders and selected intellectuals, to explain his incoming government's measures to improve the business environment for foreign investors.

Sagong Il, head of the transition team's special committee on national competitiveness, visited Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday through Friday to attend the annual forum organized by the Geneva-based World Economic Form in his capacity as Lee's special envoy.

Sagong, a former finance minister, also held a series of meetings with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and heads of the OECD, the IMF and the World Bank to explain the direction of Lee's economic and deregulation policies and exchange views on pending global issues

Though Lee had planned to attend the Davos Forum, he had to cancel it because of other commitments in Korea.

yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr