Short Detour but a Big Dividend

For some time, the president’s principal foreign policy advisors have been emphasizing the importance of Asia. But a flap is brewing between Seoul and Washington that must be cleared up before it becomes real serious. Fortunately, there is time to fix it.

In mid-April, the White House says, the president plans a two-day diplomatic trip to Japan. You may recall that the president’s last planned trip there, for the November Asian economic summit in Osaka, was abruptly canceled in the midst of the budget impasse in Washington. The Japanese, the economic event’s host, were furious--doubly so after the president traipsed off to Europe just weeks later, even though the budgetary cold war remained unresolved. Anti-American fury, already whipped up by the shocking Okinawa rape case, soared anew, rocking the foundations of the U.S.-Japan security alliance.

So the April trip is a makeup gesture. So far, so good. But not far enough: As the schedule now stands, Clinton will visit Japan and no other Asian nation before flying on to Moscow. The Koreans are particularly upset and are making this known to National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, who is in Seoul today on a quiet diplomatic trip to smooth relations. “If Clinton does not visit Korea, the message is that Korea is not a very important U.S. ally,” says one Korean diplomat, not wanting to be quoted by name.

That’s not the intent, of course; the intent is to reelect the president, and his handlers simply don’t want their candidate to spend one unnecessary minute outside the United States. Said one top administration source in Washington: “Uptight White House schedulers, worried about the campaign, are knee-jerking on this.”

They ought to check Tokyo-Seoul flight schedules. Adding Seoul to the itinerary for a brief stopover would scarcely imperil the president’s reelection prospects: Seoul is just a two hour or so flight from Tokyo--not much more than the quick hop down to Los Angeles from San Francisco.

Wounded feelings are one thing, but the South Koreans are genuinely concerned that Clinton’s failure to touch down on Korean soil in April will only encourage two dangerous elements on the peninsula. In the South, they worry, anti-American student groups will exploit the snub. And with China’s sabers rattling in Taiwan’s face, China’s ally North Korea might be emboldened to try something stupid on the 38th parallel, especially if it thinks that Clinton believes Seoul is somehow no longer a key American ally. This would be an absurd inference, of course, but a miscalculation that the historically isolated political and military command in Pyongyang is fully capable of making. Recall that in 1950, not long after Secretary of State Dean Acheson failed to explicitly include Korea in a major speech outlining the parameters of vital U.S. interests abroad, the North Koreans marched south, triggering the Korean War.

Korea is vitally important, strategically and economically. It’s not for nothing that we have as many troops stationed in Korea as we do in Japan. This is not simply a hedge against the North: Will Tokyo be a firm ally forever? Economically, our trading relationship with South Korea becomes more dynamic all the time. Down the road, a united Korea, with a combined population and economic potential close to West Germany’s, could grow to rival Japan. Where’s our strategic vision?

It’s true that Bill Clinton will be hip deep by April in the big muddy of his bid for reelection. But it is also true that at that time he will still be president of the United States. Important foreign policy considerations must take precedence over political ones. Of course Koreans will argue that a visit to Korea would boost his standing among Koreans here in America, of which there are about 800,000 (259,000 in California). That might be a slight stretch. But it’s not a stretch to remind Clinton that a sitting president seems better cast for the job when acting presidential, especially when the other party’s candidates are flinging primary election dirt in all directions.

One fervently hopes that Tony Lake, getting his ears burned in Seoul, will return to Washington to pitch South Korea’s case directly to his boss, the president. Even the Japanese, hardly South Korea’s biggest boosters, believe that the Tokyo-and-we’re-outta-here plan is a mistake. Says one Japanese diplomat: “It would be taken as an insult if he doesn’t go to Seoul. We completely understand the Korean position.”

Tom Plate’s column runs Tuesdays. His e-mail address is <tplate@ucla.edu>.