Korea Moves From Courtesy Call to the Front Burner : The most interesting stops of President Clinton’s trip are in Asia, where a little U.S. support goes a longer way.

When Air Force One began streaking west Sunday, with President Clinton, the secretary of state and other top American officials tucked inside, the administration might have wanted to leave behind like excess takeoff weight the never-ending preoccupations of U.S. foreign policy with Europe and the Middle East. But it couldn’t. Even as I was speaking with Secretary of State Warren Christopher before he left, one could practically hear the rocket fire in the Middle East erupting in the background. But the most interesting stops of the journey, which winds up in Russia, are in the beginning.

Consider Korea. Before touching down in Tokyo for a planned two-day summit, Clinton and Christopher were to hold talks today with President Kim Young Sam, who was shaken by a recent legislative election that left his ruling party holding onto power by its fingernails. On top of that, North Korea is wildly unpredictable. Said Christopher: “Our next step there is to try to create the basis for a North-South dialogue. The North has been trying to provoke the South. The focus of American diplomacy should be on creating conditions for dialogue.” In fact, Clinton planned to propose unconditional peace talks between the two Koreas, with Beijing and Washington participating.

Initially, let us recall, Korea wasn’t even a stop on Clinton’s schedule. It’s good that this error was fixed: Americans have already lost enough lives establishing stability on that peninsula. American policy needs to remain nuanced but not mushy; the North Koreans must understand that we are there to stay until hell freezes over--or as long as the threat to South Korea remains.

During an interview last fall, Christopher said that the American establishment has underplayed our Pacific interests. Today, six months later, the secretary wasn’t prepared to make exaggerated claims about any midcourse corrections by the administration. But as he ticked off some of his concerns, one did sense that maybe the ground-zero consciousness of U.S. foreign policy had gotten at least as far west as Okinawa, or perhaps Panmunjon.

Christopher believes strongly that America must remain engaged in the Pacific. “I think the tension over the Taiwan Strait showed the importance of maintaining the United States as a Pacific power,” he said, referring to China’s military exercises during the run-up to Taiwan’s historic presidential election last month, and to our response--dispatching two aircraft carriers. “All the countries of Asia were glad we were there.” Except, of course, China.

Tokyo was real glad. And in Tokyo on Wednesday and Thursday, President Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will try to make one another look good. Clinton faces his reelection ordeal and Hashimoto is struggling to keep his balance atop a shaky coalition. Last week, the administration agreed to reduce our profile in Okinawa by trimming back a U.S. base there. The Okinawans have been up in arms about the American presence. Christopher was upbeat: “I’m struck by how we and the Japanese have worked it out.” Maybe. If so, Hashimoto should at least agree to something like, say, an extension of the symbolically significant semiconductor trade accord. This agreement, negotiated by the Reagan and Bush administrations but scheduled to expire in July, successfully opened the previously shuttered Japanese market to sales of foreign computer electronic parts. In fact, one administration source told me Sunday that the two sides appeared to be close to a deal.

“We will continue to emphasize the importance of market access for U.S. companies,” said Christopher. “But we have a very broad and deep relationship with Japan, and the security relationship stands in most respects on its own. By itself, it benefits both the Japanese and American peoples.”

While China’s clumsy blustering over Taiwan served to remind a not-always-appreciative Japan of the benefits of an American military presence, it also reminded Beijing of who had the most big guns. Beijing is still sulking. Last week, China pointedly announced that it was awarding a major aircraft contract to the Europeans instead of the Americans. Take that, aircraft-carrier America. But Christopher was again unfazed: “I don’t think our closeness to Japan prevents a good, solid relationship with China,” he said. “It’s not a competitive situation. There is not any kind of cabal or organized effort against China.”

But, alas, Congress has been pushing the State Department to elevate Taiwan’s bilateral status in a way sure to infuriate Beijing. Just late last week, Clinton vetoed a bill to require the administration to offer the president of Taiwan an official invitation to visit; at the same time, the bill urged the President not to go to China. Responded Christopher, rather sharply: “The key is to remember: We have an official relationship with China and an unofficial relationship with Taiwan. The key to relations with both countries is to remember that the relationship with Taiwan is unofficial.” But didn’t we dispatch two U.S. aircraft carriers when Beijing got feisty? “I think we calibrated that decision in an appropriate way,” Christopher said, referring to our relative restraint in keeping our carriers outside the strait itself. Then he added, with a touch of steel in his voice: “We didn’t want to do what others had done and be unnecessarily provocative.”

The veto was absolutely justified. In fact, it would be better for everyone if Taiwan’s President Lee Teng-hui would stop pushing the international recognition envelope and, indeed, if China had been included on Clinton’s Asia trip. Congress has got it wrong, and this divide between Capitol Hill and the White House is a serious problem for American foreign policy.