Clinton to Meet Seoul’s Leader Amid Best Bilateral Relations in Decades : South Korea: Talks won’t be a total love fest. Doubts linger over U.S. commitment to nation’s security.

In the first meeting between President Clinton and South Korean leader Kim Young Sam here Saturday, there will be ringing declarations of democratic commitment, lofty statements of economic cooperation and a firm commitment to mutual security under the shadow of the world’s most isolated and dangerous Communist regime in North Korea.

Both sides will salute their best bilateral relations in decades.

South Korea has defused American criticism by significantly reducing a troubling trade surplus. And by electing in December the first civilian president after three decades of strong-arm military rule, South Koreans have also assuaged many of Washington’s past doubts about the government’s legitimacy and commitment to human rights.

Clinton, arriving here after the Tokyo economic summit, will be admired for his youth and his call for change; he will be flattered by comparisons made here between himself and the late President John F. Kennedy. Kim, meanwhile, will be praised for his high-profile campaign to curb corruption and reinvigorate the sagging economy.

Separated in age by two decades, the two leaders are linked by common traits of “idealism, aspirations and messianic visions,” as one Korean commentator breathlessly put it.

At least publicly, the biggest disagreement between the two leaders will have been setting the time for the joint presidential jog: Kim wanted 6:30 a.m.; Clinton asked for 8 a.m. (They settled on 8 a.m.)

“We have a new age before us,” said Kim Young Mok, a Foreign Ministry official. “This reflects our confidence that we are a fully developed democracy, are becoming a full security partner and are moving from a big brother-small brother relationship to full partnership.”

But it won’t be a total love fest. Some demonstrations are planned to protest everything from American nuclear policy to allegations of U.S. complicity in the 1980 Kwangju massacre, in which an estimated 200 people were slain during an uprising against military-government repression and the arrest of opposition leaders.

Some Koreans also harbor nagging doubts about the Clinton Administration’s commitment to Seoul’s security. And American officials and executives continue to complain about South Korea’s closed markets, red tape, difficulty in raising capital and a legal system with “vague rules subject to capricious interpretation,” as one U.S. official put it.

“The Koreans try to paint a little too rosy a picture” on economic progress, the official said. “Their line is that our trade is balanced, therefore there’s no problem. But there are still a lot of barriers.”

Clinton is not expected to press Kim on specific trade issues but will probably endorse a broad agreement for economic consultations to tackle not only trade issues but also finance, investment, technology and science. On Sunday, however, the President will get an earful of complaints in a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce in Seoul.

Security issues will dominate the agenda. The two sides will discuss how to deal with North Korea, its suspected nuclear weapons development program and its threatened withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Clinton reportedly will propose a new regional security system to check the area’s growing arms race in the face of U.S. defense budget cutbacks and planned troop reductions. Not only would traditional East Asian allies be included but also Russia and China, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri reported.

The system reportedly would not supersede existing security pacts with South Korea and Japan.

Some security experts in Seoul have suggested the establishment of a regional security forum to increase trust by, among other things, sharing information on military personnel and defense budgets. A fuller security agreement, similar to one in place in Europe, is considered premature because of lingering Cold War sentiments.

Meantime, some analysts here have been rattled by recent high-level talks between Washington and Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, arguing it may compromise the U.S. commitment to Seoul. But the Kim government welcomes the talks and appreciates American efforts to resolve the nuclear issue, South Korean Foreign Minister Han Sung Joo took pains to emphasize Thursday.

Han said Kim did not believe that the United States had compromised its security commitment to South Korea in pledging last month that it would not use force, including nuclear weapons, against Pyongyang. Kim “was not at all dissatisfied and had no misgivings about the results of the U.S.-North Korea talks,” Han said.

But that agreement set off alarm among some analysts here. They said the pledge effectively neutralized U.S. security commitments to Seoul and weakened the American “nuclear umbrella” over Asia. Rumors of a “secret deal” between Pyongyang and Washington began circulating.

“To me, it was shocking,” said Kim Tae Woo, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis. “How can the U.S. promise a security commitment to South Korea while promising to use no force against North Korea?”

In the face of such criticism, Kim recently told Western news organizations that Clinton should make no further concessions to Pyongyang, a statement widely interpreted as signaling his discontent with Washington’s diplomacy.

But Han said the intent was to assuage domestic critics, not to express unhappiness with Washington. “We were trying to assure our own people that we are not throwing away concessions, and also as a warning to North Korea,” Han said.

Seoul will be looking for a strong affirmation of American solidarity--particularly given the general perception that Clinton is “a little more reluctant” than was President George Bush to assume a global security burden, said Rhee Sang Woo, a Sogang University professor and chairman of Kim’s academic advisory committee.

Clinton is also expected to single out South Korea and the Kim administration for praise on its democratic progress and vocal support of human rights.

Indeed, while China vociferously criticizes and Japan quietly questions Washington’s emphasis on human rights, “the Kim government is one of the few in the region that basically agrees with the U.S.,” an American official said, noting that Seoul sided with Washington at the recent human rights conference in Vienna.

And, just as Clinton made a condolence call in Tokyo to parents of a Japanese exchange student slain in a mistaken Halloween shooting, some here hope the President will encourage South Koreans whose relatives were devastated by the Los Angeles riots.