‘He Doth Protest Too Much’
Would a statement like this have been uttered by a Korean diplomat ten years ago?
Responding to a question about giving greater “strategic flexibility” to the U.S. Forces Korea, Kim said, “Even though I am an ambassador to China, I would say that it is certain that Korea and the U.S. are allies, and as such the bilateral relationship is far stronger than other relationships, which allows us to agree on strategic flexibility. He said China has not so far mentioned the controversial move to allow the USFK to be deployed in trouble sports elsewhere. “In my opinion China may understand that the Korea-U.S. alliance is very special, having lasted for more than 50 years,” he added.
No Korean diplomat would have had to make a statement like that until recently. And then Ambassador Kim provided this harbinger of things to come . . . .
“It is going to take a long time for the Korea-China relationship to evolve similarly to the Korea-U.S. relationship politically.
Funny, I had no idea that the SOFA had a provision like this.
Regarding the Korea-China relationship, Ambassador Kim said this: “There are still plenty of political and ideological differences.” He was obviously referring to the fact that China is communist. Ambassador Kim was suggesting that it’s going to take a long time for China to evolve to a democracy. The fact that a democratic South Korea is cherishing its relationship to America, is not ‘kowtowing’. It is insulting to suggest that to a country that is standing up for democracy in Asia.
Ambassador Kim was giving greater importance to the Alliance, because he was trying to emphasize that South Korea will support the ‘strategic flexibility’ of the USFK, despite China’s disapproval.
And yet, he implies that the China-Korea alliance will eventually get to where the U.S.-Korea alliance is now. But if you think about it, that’s really saying very little.