Keep Seoul in the Fold

The South Korean presidential election campaign that ended Thursday was remarkable for its outspoken opposition by both major parties to the United States, whose 37,000 troops in South Korea help protect that nation and guarantee security across East Asia. The victor, Roh Moo Hyun, was less friendly toward Washington than his opponent and more willing to continue his predecessor’s “sunshine policy” of accommodation with North Korea.

The Bush administration said during the campaign that it could work with either candidate, but it faces tougher going with Roh, who will take office in February. Roh, the candidate of the ruling party, boasted of never having visited the U.S. and promised not to “kowtow” to Washington.

He first gained attention as a lawyer for human rights activists, criticizing the U.S. and its support of authoritarian rulers 20 years ago. He was the favorite of the young, who have grown up in a nation of peace, affluence and reconstruction from the 1950-53 war that killed about 3 million people, many of them civilians, and more than 36,000 U.S. troops.

Communist North Korea’s surprise admission in October that it is continuing a nuclear weapons program brought different responses from Seoul and Washington. Roh wants to keep providing financial aid and investment to the North and maintain cultural exchanges; Washington demands that North Korea first end the nuclear program.

North Korea should not be allowed to play close allies against each other in this way. The Bush administration is spending a great deal of time and attention on Iraq, a nation without nuclear weapons. It needs to pay more attention to the Korean peninsula, where North Korea may already be a small nuclear power. Washington and Seoul must join Japan to decide a joint strategy toward the north. At some point the United States will also have to talk with Pyongyang and try to resurrect an agreement in which the North agrees to outside verification that it has stopped developing nuclear weapons in return for resumed U.S. aid, such as fuel oil shipments, and a nonaggression pledge.

Washington and South Korea need to separately discuss the status of U.S. troops in the country. The acquittals last month of two U.S. soldiers whose mine-clearing vehicle ran over and killed two schoolgirls led to large anti-American street rallies. Moving troops from Seoul to other cities would ease tensions; so would modestly reducing the number of U.S. troops.

Roh is unlikely to jeopardize the U.S. relationship, but he and other South Koreans want more, and more respectful, consultation from Washington. The United States needs assistance from South Korea in approaching the North, even if one plays the bad cop and the other the good cop. High-level talks with Roh and his aides should begin even before he assumes office. The Korean peninsula is too dangerous a place to be pushed to the background.