Anti-American Rancor to Tinge Bush’s S. Korea Visit

In sharp contrast with President Bush’s ceremonial visit to Japan, where he attended the funeral of Emperor Hirohito, and his so-called “sentimental journey” to China, tension will be in the air when Bush makes a brief, five-hour stopover Monday in South Korea.

The country is simmering with anti-American rancor expressed with violence. A bilateral relationship that was once considered basically sound is now strained by trade disputes. And much confusion is arising from an awkward retooling of joint security arrangements at a time when the Seoul government is making ambivalent peace overtures to its bitter military foe, Communist North Korea.

Anti-Americanism promises to be the theme of the day. Students and dissidents have already begun a series of protests against the Bush visit, and they have vowed to demonstrate in force on Monday.

Bush is not likely to be threatened or disturbed, or even to see a protester. But he might smell something unusual, as the government can be expected to deploy thousands of riot police to quell any unrest with their usual clouds of acrid pepper gas.

Kim Suk Kyu, assistant minister of foreign affairs, dismissed the growing concern over U.S.-South Korean ties at a recent meeting with foreign reporters. He said anti-Americanism is “a minority view and a passing phenomenon, despite loud voices and anti-American activities.”

But there are clear signs that the problem is getting worse, not better. The American Cultural Center in the southwestern provincial city of Kwangju has been attacked three times in the past month by radical students wielding rocks, firebombs and, in one incident, sledgehammers.

After a particularly vicious attack at the end of January, U.S. officials let it be known that they had had enough and were considering shutting down the center.

“If we must close our center to protect human life, we do so, although with great reluctance,” Thomas Brooks, U.S. charge d’affaires, reportedly told Kwangju Mayor Choi In Ki.

Kwangju, in fact, is the crucible of South Korean hatred for things American. It was there that former President Chun Doo Hwan used regular South Korean army troops, released from the operational control of an American commander, to put down a 1980 civilian revolt with tragic results. The government says nearly 200 protesters were killed, but unofficial estimates of the death toll are much higher.

Dissidents allege that U.S. authorities gave tacit approval to Chun’s brutal measures by releasing the troops, but the charges do not stop there. Washington stands accused of meddling in South Korean affairs and propping up a succession of dictators. Proponents of a revisionist view of history maintain that the United States was solely responsible for dividing Korea at the end of World War II and now wants to perpetuate that division to advance its own geopolitical aims.

Disenchantment with the American benefactor is spreading among the mainstream population too, as South Koreans awaken to new national pride. In the Seoul Olympics last year, the crowds cheered for Soviet teams and booed the Americans. The Korean YMCA sponsored a nationalistic campaign to boycott American cigarettes after U.S. trade pressure pried open the market to imports last year.

South Koreans are “annoyed by Washington’s ‘arrogance’ and ‘heavy-handedness’ in trade negotiations with Seoul,” Byung Chul Koh, professor of political science at the University of Illinois in Chicago, wrote in a recent monograph on U.S.-South Korean relations. “Some are even beginning to question the value of the American military presence, something that had been unthinkable until very recently.”

To Have Lunch With Roh

Bush will have little time to get into substantive discussions when he meets President Roh Tae Woo over lunch. The two leaders are likely to discuss ongoing revisions in the joint-command structure and the Status of Forces Agreement, the treaty under which U.S. troops are stationed here, as well as recent progress toward reconciliation with North Korea, officials said.

Prospects for withdrawal of some of the 43,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, however, are not expected to be on the agenda. Nor is the controversy over North Korean demands--backed now by students and dissidents in the south--that the joint U.S.-South Korean “Team Spirit” military exercises be canceled next month to nurture the north-south dialogue.

But Bush, making the first presidential visit here since Ronald Reagan came in 1983, may be forced to depart from the script when he goes to the National Assembly to give a speech and meets the “three Kims,” opposition leaders who head rival parties.

Hanging heavy over the Bush visit will be the threat of U.S. retaliatory sanctions under the 1988 Omnibus Trade Act. After negotiations on U.S. demands that Seoul open its telecommunications market broke down in Washington earlier this month, South Korea appears to be a candidate for designation as an unfair trading partner. Disagreements over intellectual property rights and liberalization of agricultural imports are also pending.

Plan to Cut Trade Surplus

Trade Minister Han Seung Soo announced a plan to cut tariffs and boost U.S. imports by 29% to $16.5 billion this year, thus cutting the bilateral trade surplus from $8.5 billion in 1988 to $6.5 billion in 1989. But officials say they are perplexed over how to satisfy the Americans.

“We hope that after negotiations, Korea will be excluded from the list” of unfair trading partners, Han said. “We hope to explain to the Congress and to the Administration that what we have been doing in the past was the maximum we could do, and that we’ll do the maximum in the future.”

Shin Doo Byong, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s American Affairs Bureau, said that although the “basic fabric” of the relationship is in good shape, ties could be strained by continued trade friction.

“The United States should be very careful not to pick on Korea as a scapegoat,” Shin said. “There’d be a backlash in every sense.”

Already, the anti-American theme has become a standard plank in nearly all the frequent ritual protests in Seoul. On Feb. 13, for example, about 12,000 angry farmers stormed the National Assembly building in a riotous protest over an irrigation tax and red pepper prices. They also denounced U.S. beef imports--and mimicked dissident slogans criticizing the Bush visit and demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“The red light is starting to blink for the United States,” said Kim Keun Tae, a dissident leader. He said that anti-American violence is likely to worsen “if America continues to make foolish choices in its Korea policy.”

Kim cited the recent appointment of Donald Gregg, a career Central Intelligence Agency official and former national security adviser to Vice President Bush, as U.S. ambassador to Seoul. Gregg was CIA station chief here from 1973 to 1979, and he replaces another CIA man, James R. Lilley.

“He was here with the CIA during one of our darkest eras, when human rights were grossly violated,” Kim said. “This shows the U.S. considers Korea an operational center, where they can manipulate politics.”