Lee, Obama summit likely to focus on N. Korea, global economic recession

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, March 29 (Yonhap) -- The first summit meeting between South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in London next week
will likely focus on tackling the worst global economic recession in decades and
North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

Lee will meet with Obama bilaterally Thursday on the sidelines of the G20
economic summit, the second of its kind since world leaders gathered in November
to combat the worst global economic crisis in decades.
The summit also comes against the backdrop of an imminent rocket launch by North
Korea, which insists the launch is for sending a communications satellite into
space. The U.S. and its allies in the region view the claim as a cover for
testing the North's ballistic missile capability and possibly reviving missile
talks suspended a decade ago.
"They will discuss strategies for responding to the global financial crisis and
promoting domestic demand," the White House said last week in reference to the
meeting between the two leaders. "They plan to confer on North Korea to ensure
close coordination, assess progress and challenges in the U.S.-ROK Alliance, and
share ideas on development of clean energy to address our common environmental
concerns."
Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said the
meeting would "focus primarily on coordinating strategies to combat the global
financial crisis and North Korea's provocative behavior."
Klingner also predicted that Lee "will offer recommendations derived from South
Korea's reform-driven recovery from the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis."
South Korea, whose economy was hit hardest by the crisis a decade ago, became one
of the few countries that successfully emerged from the crisis in a relatively
short period of a few years.
"President Lee will argue for creating a bad bank to handle toxic assets while
simultaneously using government resources to recapitalize financial institutions
while also having the private sector assume a fair share of the burden," Klinger
said.
Lee will also advocate "the need for bold and decisive action rather than
incremental measures to regain market confidence... and removing impaired assets
from the balance sheets of financial institutions," he added.
Klinger also noted that a pending Free Trade Agreement between Seoul and
Washington will also likely be high on the agenda.
"A key message pushed by President Lee will be to reject trade protectionism, an
issue of great importance to South Korea given the Obama administration's growing
protectionist rhetoric against the Korea-US free trade agreement," he said. "Lee
will seek to convince Obama of the merits of the FTA, which is estimated would
increase U.S. GDP by $10 billion annually."
Gordon Flake, executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation
that focuses on U.S.-Asia relations, disagreed with that assessment.
"It is too early for them to discuss the FTA," he said. "They'd better wait as
there is no chance of the FTA getting ratified in the near future before the U.S.
economy is recovered."
Protectionism is growing in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress as trade
union-backed Democrats fear possible job cuts caused by the Korea FTA amid
skyrocketing unemployment fueled by the worsening crisis.
Obama and other senior U.S. officials have taken specific issue with restricted
shipments of U.S. beef and an imbalance in auto trade, calling for an adjustment
of those issues before submitting the trade deal, the biggest for the U.S. since
the North American Free Trade Agreement that took effect in 1993.
South Korea has said it would not renegotiate the deal, although some U.S.
officials and experts are proposing creative measures to address the issues
without revising the agreement itself.
On North Korea's rocket launch, scheduled to coincide with the G20 summit, Lee
and Obama will likely seek a coordinated position with China, Russia and Japan,
the other members of six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"Lee, Obama, and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will seek to create a
coordinated response to North Korea's threatened missile launch as well as a
strategy for convincing China and Russia to acquiesce to a firm U.N. response,"
Klingner said.
South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will likely try to impose further sanctions on
the North for a launch of either a satellite or a missile, a move that both China
and Russia have so far given a lukewarm response to in apparent sympathy with
North Korea's claim that it has the right to develop a peaceful space program.
The White House said Saturday that Obama will also meet with Chinese President Hu
Jintao in London "to take an opportunity to discuss our shared concerns about
preparations in North Korea for a launch that we, as you know, would consider to
be counter to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718."
Softening from an earlier stance, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said
earlier in the day that the U.S. would not attempt to intercept the rocket unless
it was headed for U.S. territory, an apparent conciliatory gesture to China as
well as North Korea, which declared that any interception would be an act of war.
Klingner said that the U.S., South Korea and Japan "share common objectives on
the missile threat, as well as Six Party Talks nuclear negotiations, but will
likely be at odds with Beijing and Moscow."
Flake anticipates that Lee and Obama will clearly express their coordinated
position on the issue of North Korea's missile launch. "The North Korean missile
threat is not only a bilateral issue but also a multilateral one involving all
the G20 countries."
Enhancing their bilateral alliance is also on the table for the Lee-Obama summit.
The South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae announced that the leaders
"will discuss ways to develop the relationship between the two countries and
issues related to the Korean Peninsula, such as the Korea-U.S. alliance and North
Korea."
Klingner predicted, however, that the North's imminent rocket launch and ongoing
global economic crisis would "overshadow" discussions on the South Korea-U.S.
strategic alliance in London.
"Though understandable given the immensity of the economic challenges and
Pyongyang's threatening behavior, the alliance discussion should not be deferred
for too long since it can form the basis for addressing security issues in Asia
and globally," he said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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