New South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s June 29-30 White House summit will likely ease the discomfort felt by many in his home country over alleged “Korea passing” by the Trump administration. Korea passing included a combination of factors: a prolonged impeachment process in Seoul, followed…
New South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s June 29-30 White House summit will likely ease the discomfort felt by many in his home country over alleged “Korea passing” by the Trump administration. Korea passing included a combination of factors: a prolonged impeachment process in Seoul, followed by a presidential election campaign that played out just as the political transition was taking place in Washington. Then there was President Trump’s famous flirtation with China’s Xi Jinping over North Korea policy during the April Mar-a-Lago summit. This had left many in Seoul feeling left out in the cold.
The face-to-face meeting between Trump and Moon, therefore, was critical in putting the alliance back on track, especially after conflicting messages over such issues as the value of the Korean-U. S. free trade agreement, the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, and the possibility of a re-engagement of the Pyongyang regime despite a series of further provocations in the first half of this year.
Their summit also follows a sudden downturn in U. S.-China relations, including President Trump’s June 20 tweet that Chinese efforts on North Korea “have not worked out, ” the imposition of U. S. sanctions on the Chinese bank of Dandong for money laundering for the Pyongyang regime, and the announcement of a $1.42 billion arms sales package for Taiwan. The last, according to a Chinese Embassy statement, left the Chinese government and people “outraged.” Close coordination on North Korea policy with Washington’s South Korean ally has, therefore, become more necessary than ever.
Not everything is likely to be rosy for Trump and Moon. President Moon, a chief presidential adviser during the implementation of the late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s ultimately unsuccessful “sunshine policy” of over a decade ago, has his own version of engagement. This policy, with a promise of a renewed ready cash flow—which must music to the ears of the “Young General” in Pyongyang—has been dubbed by some as a “moonshine policy.”
Before touting this as an enlightened approach to unconvinced administration and congressional ears in Washington, diplomats in Seoul may wish to check an English language dictionary. The American English usage of “moonshine” has two meanings, neither of which is conducive to the idea that the Korean president wishes to project: 1) illicit or distilled smuggled liquor (possibly evoking North Korea’s illicit trade in drugs, counterfeit currency, and weapons) , and 2) foolish talk or ideas (which is how many Washington skeptics may see this policy) . At best, invoking a “moonshine policy” for North Korea may evoke bewildered amusement among Americans at large.
Key areas of disagreement on alliance issues include an apparent basic difference in perceptions of North Korea. While the progressive aides who surround the South Korean president reportedly view the North Koreans as misguided brethren who can be cajoled to a more rational approach to peninsula issues, U. S. congressional leaders, and more importantly the American public, view North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un, with increasing foreboding. Continued missile and nuclear tests have put North Korea on the American public’s radar screen as one of only three powers, along with Russia and China, which actually has the weapons development and possible delivery capability to threaten the American homeland. Further public attention was drawn to the rogue North Korean regime when it hacked into the files of a major corporation, Sony, following its satirical presentation of Kim Jong-un in the movie The Interview. “Can’ t you take a joke?” thought many Americans used to cutting Saturday Night Live- style political satire. Obviously not. Then there was the abhorrent murder of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother with a banned chemical weapon at a Malaysian airport earlier this year.
But nothing has evoked such a public reaction in the United States as the tragic death of American student Otto Warmbier almost immediately after his return home to his grieving parents. This followed his being kept as a hostage incognito in a coma by the Pyongyang regime for more than a year. The funeral in his Wyoming, Ohio, hometown the week before the South Korean president’s visit received wide media coverage.
An often lethargic Congress sprang into action. Senator Rob Portman, of Otto’s home state of Ohio, attended the funeral and made a statement on the floor of the Senate. Rep. Tom Garrett, who represents Otto’s adopted home of Charlottesville, Va., where he attended the University of Virginia, called for a re-listing of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism for its brutalization of his former constituent. The Hill newspaper reported on June 28 that the House is prepared to take up North Korean travel ban legislation, proposed by Republican Rep. Joe Wilson and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, soon after it returns from the Fourth of July recess. The tragedy of Otto Warmbier has served as a lunar eclipse to darken any consideration of the “moonshine policy.”
The whole concept is actually baffling to the average American. In Chicago, Tribune readers described a recent article outlining a proposal by President Moon Jae-in to have a unified North Korea-South Korea team compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea with the word “ridiculous.” The June 21 failure of a U. S. Navy interceptor missile to hit its target in a test off the coast of Hawaii has increased jitters about the North Korean threat. President Moon’s decision to suspend further deployment of the THAAD system due to an environmental study thus is questioned by many Americans who consider the continuous North Korean missile testing this year as an immediate threat to not only the people of South Korea but the people of Hawaii and possibly the American mainland, as well. Another lingering issue, the discussion of burden-sharing the costs of the deployment of the 28,500 U. S. troops in South Korea—a subject of Trump campaign rhetoric and a matter which is addressed in the US-ROK Special Measures Agreement (SMA) bilateral negotiations—has apparently been put on the back burner during the present summit. But as the next SMA round of negotiations is set to begin before the end of 2017, this possibly contentious alliance issue cannot be ignored indefinitely.
The new South Korean president’s recent “moonshine” rhetoric also stands in sharp contrast to President Trump’s summit press conference statement that U.
