LAT: U.S.-South Korea Relationship Has Soured

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S.-South Korea Relationship Has Soured
As America focuses on nuclear-armed North Korea, emerging powerhouse China and other Asian nations, its ties with Seoul languish.

By Tyler Marshall and Mark Mazzetti, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration strengthens ties in Asia as part of a hedging strategy to contain fast-rising China, it has allowed a key relationship in the region to fray: its half-century-old alliance with South Korea.

Strong ties with Seoul have never been more pressing, regional experts say, and the administration plans to launch a diplomatic initiative to breathe new life into a relationship that, much like an unhappy marriage, has soured over the years as the partners drift apart.

"There's no question, if the alliance isn't managed properly, it could easily fall apart," said Peter Beck, the Seoul-based director of the International Crisis Group, a privately financed conflict-prevention organization, who also serves as an advisor to South Korea's Ministry of Unification.

The region includes emerging powerhouse China; unpredictable, nuclear-armed North Korea; and nations with unresolved historical enmities that add to the area's volatility. But as the White House devotes its energies to expanding its alliance with Japan, building new bridges to India and even nurturing a budding relationship with Vietnam, ties with Seoul have languished.

Against this backdrop, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to meet Thursday in Washington with a South Korean delegation for the inaugural session of a dialogue officially called a "strategic consultation." The meeting has no fixed agenda and has been billed as a chance to explore the broader relationship and priorities of both countries....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usasia17jan17,0,191207.story?coll=la-home-world

[Rainscents]

1. Bush is doing a hackofajob!!!

[MrPrax]

2. Classic Punditry...

that talks only of the elites and totally miss the part that the Korean public has a lot to do with the fact the alliance has become shaky--South Korean leaders can't sell it anymore given US actions and policies both in the world and regionally. The US continues to see the North as a vital threat and the South Koreans don't.

A large element of the Korean population want the US out of Korean, period and NO 'strategic consultation' is likely to alter that...US admins just can't bribe them anymore and the closeness of the US relationship makes their 'real' allies nervous. (trojan horse)

Besides, the US policy of 'aggressive intervention' against the North, is not likely to win many points in the South. Even the formerly dictatorial anti-communist gov'ts in South Korea have thawed far more than the US.