S. Koreans Affirm Close Ties to U.S.

Despite periodic anti-American protests in Seoul, the South Korean government remains a loyal ally of the United States, top lawmakers from Seoul said Friday in Los Angeles.

“We have demonstrated our loyalty and friendship not only with our words, but with our actions,” said Shin Ki-nam, chairman of the ruling Uri Party. “Even after an innocent young Korean civilian was kidnapped and brutally murdered by a terrorist group in Iraq, we have stood by our commitment to send additional South Korean soldiers to Iraq.”

Shin said his five-member delegation spent this week in Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles to “explain and clear up some misunderstanding” over the changing relationship between the two nations and to “consolidate and reinforce” the alliance.

“We need each other,” he said.

The lawmakers stopped in Los Angeles to meet with journalists and members of Los Angeles’ large Korean American community. In Washington, they had met with administration officials, congressional leaders and reporters.

Shin said the relationship between the U.S. and South Korea is undergoing tremendous changes. The generation that felt beholden to the United States for its role during the Korean War half a century ago is being replaced by leaders and constituents who want the U.S. to become more “sensitive” to Korean pride and feelings, he said.

South Korea, after all, is the world’s 12th-largest economy and a democratic nation. That democracy, which the U.S. helped foster, enables South Koreans to protest when they feel wronged, he said, such as when two Korean girls were struck and killed by an American military vehicle in 2002. The acquittal of two GIs by a U.S. military court sparked protests in South Korea and Los Angeles.

On the subject of nuclear arms, the South Korean legislators said they were encouraged by talks in Beijing last month at which the U.S., North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and agreed to meet again by the end of September.

South Korea also was pleased that the U.S. put forward a detailed proposal for the north for the first time, said Chung Eui-yong, chairman of the South Korean parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee.

Under the proposal, North Korea would have to meet several conditions during an initial three-month period, including providing a full accounting of its weapons systems, granting the United States access to its nuclear operations and disabling some of its more dangerous weapons.

During that period, the north would receive shipments of heavy fuel oil from South Korea and Japan.

“We are hopeful,” Shin said.

He also said he hoped North Korean leader Kim Jong Il would visit Seoul when “the time is right.”

Two weeks ago, Chung said, he traveled by bus on a new highway connecting the two countries to Kaesong in the north to participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at an industrial park.

“I had a distinct impression that North Korea is changing,” Chung said.

On Tuesday, another group of legislators from South Korea will meet U.S. congressional leaders on Capitol Hill as part of a program in which lawmakers of the two nations take turns visiting each other’s capitals to discuss issues of mutual interest.

That South Korean group will visit Los Angeles next week.