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"Americans Not Welcome," read the sign in the window of a downtown Seoul shop during a series of anti-U.S. protests in the South Korean capital recently. It was truly a sign of changing times. Tens of thousands of Koreans turned out for the candlelight vigil in December protesting American military privileges on the peninsula. Some shredded the Stars and Stripes. Club owners have banned GIs as part of growing hostility toward the U.S. In return, some Washington politicians are talking about getting the 37,000 U.S. troops out of the South. Some Americans even want a boycott of South Korean goods.
Relations between Seoul and Washington have been frosty in the two years since President Bush took office. And they're not going to improve soon. Early on, Bush disavowed South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's policy of engagement with the North, making no secret of his visceral dislike of dictator Kim Jong Il.
North Korea was part of Bush's "axis of evil" in last year's State of the Union address. And he used the 2003 address to continue his attacks on North Korea's "Dear Leader." South Koreans, who think accommodation with the North is the only way forward, find Bush's approach abhorrent.
RESENTMENT MOUNTS. The U.S.-South Korean alliance has a long history. But it's now in more serious trouble than it has ever been -- and a split may be inevitable. Before that happens, though, both sides need to step back, take some deep breaths, and figure out how to resolve their differences. It's time for some serious thinking -- and serious leadership.
The growing chasm can't be papered over any longer. A December poll of more than 38,000 people in 44 countries conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 44% of South Koreans view the U.S. unfavorably. Nearly three-quarters of Koreans don't believe that Bush's foreign policy considers others, and about the same percentage opposed the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
This was by far the most negative reaction of the 17 Asian and African counties where the question was asked. And it doesn't stop there. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of South Koreans think the spread of American ideas and customs is bad.
DEMOCRATIC IDEALS. Overall, the percentage of South Koreans holding a generally favorable view of the U.S. slipped to just 53% last year, vs. 58% two years earlier. By way of comparison, 61% of Russians polled view America favorably. This is a startling number for a country that the U.S. regards as a strategic stronghold in the Pacific.
So how to stop this downward spiral?
First, the two sides need to remember what they have in common. Most important, both are democracies. South Korea is a young democracy, but its radicals who were jailed a decade ago are now taking power, thanks to the sort of free and fair election process that the U.S. has long claimed to support. Indeed, in the Pew survey, 58% of those polled liked American ideas about democracy, while only 37% disliked them.
Both the U.S. and South Korea are integral parts of the global market economy. Both are big beneficiaries (albeit in very different ways) of globalization. The U.S. led the record International Monetary Fund bailout that earmarked $58 billion for the Korean economy at the end of 1997. Resented by Koreans at the time, that bailout and the reforms that followed have transformed their economy and made it far more competitive.
Copyright 2003, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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