Lee's Diplomatic Strategy Needs Urgent Overhaul
Much to the relief of his beleaguered Korean counterpart, U.S. President George W. Bush will visit Seoul in early August.
That's not all. The Korean and U.S. leaders are scheduled to meet in Japan on the sidelines of the G8 summit next week. This means Presidents Lee and Bush will have had three summits in just four months, including their first one in April, in a top-level intimacy no two other leaders on both sides of the Pacific have ever had. Is the relationship between the two countries also closer than anytime before, then? Unfortunately, the answer seems to be less than positive, at least for now.
First of all, the process, or protocol as diplomats call it, involved in announcing the official visit was completely messed up. In defiance of international practices on a simultaneous announcement in both capitals, a White House official unilaterally made it public at a press meeting Wednesday. Barely a week has passed since Dana Perino, President Bush's chief press officer, announced her boss would not visit Korea this month, also one-sidedly and at a media briefing.
Cheong Wa Dae officials, are still busy defending their White House counterparts, noting these were simple mistakes and the U.S. side apologized for the latter happening. White House spokeswoman Perino, however, described it as ``a little bit of apology,'' saying, ``It's pretty minor.'' One could either interpret it as a real expression of regret, or as adding insult to injury. Making two similar mistakes in a week, at least seen from the viewpoint of Seoul, can hardly happen unless one side has a low estimation of the other.
President Lee's diplomatic team somewhat deserves such treatment. Hasty, amateurish and lacking in comprehensive strategy, it has caught U.S. officials off guard with premature leaks, ranging from the July visit to a possible change of summit venue to Jeju Island, to Lee's rather one-sided assurance on limiting beef imports to younger cattle. Even if all these stemmed from his haste to enhance bilateral ties, the President needs to recall the old saying, ``The road to hell is paved with good intentions.''
Some watchers here suspect the U.S. diplomatic discourtesy might be intentional to express its displeasure with the clumsy new administration in Seoul and/or to make the most of it to get more political and economic gains.
Aside from the authenticity of such a speculation, Washington would be ill advised to attempt to win more military and economic concessions from Seoul in what Koreans see as unbalanced diplomacy, if the protracted anti-U.S. beef rally nearby the American embassy in the capital city is any guide.
A Washington Post gossip writer described President Lee as a strong contender to replace former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as Bush's official lap dog, providing good fodder for Korean political oppositionists in attacking Lee, and hinting that the U.S. President's visit is due to his Korean counterpart's earnest request.
Far more worrisome than this gossip and controversies on diplomatic etiquette is Lee's unbalanced diplomatic policy focused almost on one ally ― the United States. The scheduled visit by Bush should serve as an occasion to ``normalize'' Seoul's diplomatic policy and make ``pragmatism" true to its name, to restore even part of its lost diplomatic leverage.
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