Republican Congressmen to Visit S. Korea

Regular readers of this blog and OFK before it have seen some very direct expressions of displeasure coming from Representative Henry Hyde to the South Korean government, or whizzing past its ears on the way to North Korea, often scanned in in their original and complete form (here, here, here, here, here, here). So when Yonhap reports that Hyde, the outgoing Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, is on his way to Seoul to visit President Roh Moo Hyun, you can impute some understatement to predictions that Hyde may have “candid and timely” advice for Roh. Nor would you have to crawl out on a long limb to discern the future (or lack thereof) of the U.S.-Korea alliance will come up, now that rumors of a drastic downsizing are swirling faster than I can blog them. What I wouldn’t give to be in that room with a laptop.

Hyde will visit as part of a delegation of GOP congressmen. Another will be Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, formerly a rumored candidate to succeed Hyde as Chairman, will meet with North Korean refugees in Seoul. This may signal an interest by Rohrabacher in taking a more public role in this issue, or perhaps in the Subcommittee Chairmanship now held by Rep. James Leach of Iowa.