Ambassador Han Sung Joo South Korea Works at Restoring Alliances by Larry Luxner Han Sung Joo is surprisingly candid about the current state of relations between the United States and his country, South Korea. ìOn a scale of one to 10, I would say itís an eight,î he says, ìnot quite a nine or 10, as the U.S.-Japan relationship seems to be.î But eight is still a lot better than the five or six Han gave bilateral relations one year ago, when he arrived as Seoulís ambassador in Washington. Back then, Han told us, his main challenge was twofold. ìOne had to do with restoring and strengthening the strong alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea. At that time, in the wake of demonstrations in Korea and the election of a new president, there were concerns in both countries that our alliance was facing serious challenges,î he says. ìThe other important issue had to do with North Koreaís nuclear ambitions. We havenít solved that problem, but at least since August we have been meeting with the North Koreans in a multilateral context.î More recently, a third issue has emerged: South Koreaís participation in the war in Iraq. Han was appointed by the now-embattled President Roh Moo Hyun shortly after the Roh government decided to send 700 Korean troops, medics and engineers to support the U.S.-led war effort. This monthóat a time when Spain, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and other countries are pulling troops out of IraqóKorea is sending an additional 3,000 soldiers. That follows a controversial decision by Koreaís National Assembly in February. ìLike in all other countries, there are people who support the dispatch of additional troops, but a large number are opposed to it,î the ambassador says. ìIt took a rather courageous decision on the part of our government, especially the president, to send additional troops.î Han spoke to The Washington Diplomat in late April, two days after a rail disaster in North Korea killed 161 people and injured more than 1,300. The story made front-page headlines around the world and forced the reclusive North Korean regime to do something it has rarely done since the two Koreas were divided in 1950: Ask its neighbors for help. ìWe have had accidents of that kind in South Korea and in other parts of the world, but the fact is that safety is a very low priority for North Korea,î says Han. Complicating the disaster, the ambassador notes, was Pyongyangís refusal to allow South Korea to send relief goods across the heavily guarded demilitarized zone to the disaster site in Ryongchon, 12 miles from the Chinese border. ìIn the wake of the explosion, thereís been a national campaign to provide help to the victims, but the North said theyíd receive goods only by ship. They just arenít prepared to have dozens of South Korean trucks and drivers on their roads.î Han, who looks much younger than his 63 years would suggest, spent most of his life as a university professor in Korea, with brief stints at Stanford and Columbia University. He has a bachelorís degree in political science from Seoul National University, as well as a doctorate in political science from the University of California at Berkeley. As foreign minister from 1993 to 1994, Han played a key role in coordinating U.S. and South Korean policy with regard to the North Korean nuclear issue. He has also served as the U.N. secretary-generalís special representative for Cyprus and participated in a U.N. inquiry into the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Before his current appointment, Han was acting president of Korea University, which has been his home since 1978. The lifelong academic stresses that heís a political appointee, not a career diplomat. ìI have very good access in Washington,î he says. ìI spend time meeting members of the administration and trade representatives. One issue that has just been resolved is a plan to standardize our wireless Internet platform, making it completely interoperative with the rest of the world.î As ambassador, Han heads a Washington staff of 150, including 95 diplomats. In addition, South Korea operates 10 consulates throughout the United States. For the moment, at least Han has one domestic headache out of the way. On March 12, the National Assembly voted to impeach President Roh on charges relating to election campaign violations and corruption. But in mid-May, the Constitutional Court ruled that the impeachment was invalid, paving the way for Roh to assume presidential powers once again. Some of Rohís critics have charged that, after appealing to Korean nationalist sentiments during the election campaign, Roh ìreverted to the tradition of buckling under to the United States,î the New York Times recently reported. Among other things, said the Times, these critics cite Rohís pledge of troops to support U.S. efforts in Iraq. ìPeople say that we are just proxies of the United States, but that is simply not true,î Han told the newspaper last year. ìBeing pragmatic people, President Roh and his team understand there is more to reality than appearances. Brave nationalistic rhetoric notwithstanding, they must do what is practically in the best interests of the nation, and that begins with a strong alliance and cooperation with the United States.î Asked to explain the never-ending violent protests against the United States by South Korean university students, Han said that such people are generally opposed to globalization, and that they deeply distrust the United States, which for years supported South Koreaís military dictatorship until free elections were held for the first time in 1987. ìDuring the past several decades, in the course of fighting against military rule and authoritarian regimes, some people with anti-American views have organized themselves, and theyíve done a very effective job of spreading their negative views,î says Han. On the other hand, he says, ìIím old enough to remember the Korean War, when the North Koreans occupied Seoul. Even as a child, it was a very suffocating experience.î Maybe that explains why Hanóunlike many young South Koreans who violently oppose the continued U.S. military presence in their countryófeels an affinity for the United States and the protective role it has played since the warís end in 1953. ìWeíve had a long period of closeness, ever since the late í40s but especially after the Korean War. This kind of familiarity, which is asymmetrical, is bound to affect younger peopleís self-respect. They donít know much about the Korean War, they donít have a sense of the North Korean threat, and they only see the symbolic and physical presence of the United States.î Han adds, ìAs long as the relationship between North and South Korea remained very hostile, the alliance [between Washington and Seoul] thrived. But when the relationship improved, people began to feel less of a threat from North Korea and began having doubts about the alliance.î Today, South Korea boasts 46 million people and an annual gross domestic product of around $450 billion, translating into an annual per-capita GDP of around $10,000. North Korea, on the other hand, has 22 million people and a per-capita GDP of less than $1,000. The two Koreas have technically been at war since 1950, when the communist Northówith help from the Chineseóattacked the capitalist South. The 1953 armistice put an end to the fighting, but not to the hostilities. Today, some 2 million troops remain stationed along the worldís most heavily militarized border just north of Seoul. That number includes 37,000 U.S. troops, although because of a shortage of troops in Iraq, the Bush administration has decided to shift 3,600 of those soldiers to the war zone there. Pentagon officials insist the redeploymentóa nearly 10 percent reductionówill have no impact on the U.S. militaryís ability to defend South Korea in the event of a conventional attack by the North. In the meantime, itís unlikely that the two Koreas will be reunited any time soon, although Han says thatís exactly what most South Koreans want. ìAfter the German reunification, many people outside of Korea expected the Koreans to become less enthusiastic, considering the costs involved. And some South Koreans did become less enthusiastic. But even the West Germans would do the same thing if they had to do it all over again, despite the economic burden,î he says. ìBesides, Korea is a different case. North Koreans are suffering a lot more than the East Germans did, so thereís a much stronger case for reunification. Secondly, the continued division of the Korean Peninsula will make the region much more insecure than the division of Germany ever was.î Of course, no reunification can take place as long as North Korea threatens the South with nuclear bombs. In mid-May, officials from six countries began low-level discussions in Beijing aimed at dismantling North Koreaís nuclear weapons program. The talks involve both Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan. The latest crisis began in October 2002, when the Bush administration accused North Korea of working on a secret uranium enrichment program. Washington wants the secretive North to scrap the nuclear program, but Pyongyang is seeking compensation for even a partial freeze. Several months ago, U.S. officials warned that the North Korean regime now possesses enough plutonium to make eight nuclear bombsóup from the two bombs in earlier estimates. Meanwhile, North and South Korea are preparing for their first general-level military talks in more than 50 years. The defense ministers of the two Koreas have met before, as have junior military officers. But generals havenít held talks since the warís end in 1953. The working-group meetings are intended to help prepare for a third round of six-nation talks, expected to take place in Beijing before the end of June. ìBefore the nuclear program became an issue, in 1992, there were talks between North and South Korea to improve relations, and there was a strong possibility of North Korea establishing some kind of a relationship with the United States,î Han says. But now, the honeymoon seems to have ended. Optimistic talk about North-South rail links, normal mail delivery and regular flights between Seoul and Pyongyang seemed to have vanished. At the same time, however, limited economic reforms are being implemented in the communist North. Last month, the Economist reported that Pyongyang installed its first outdoor advertising, in this case for Hyundai cars. In addition, fruit and vegetable markets appear to be well-stocked, with food selling at prices dictated by supply and demand rather than government controls. ìThe North Koreans seem to be serious about economic development,î says Han. ìBut the question is how serious they are about reforms, and how successful will they be? Even though they have plenty of incentives to hold onto their nuclear programs, they also know that without giving it up, there wonít be any large-scale assistance or foreign investment. So if theyíre really serious about economic recovery, they know they have to do something about the nuclear program.î The ambassador has visited North Korea only onceóin 1985, as a member of the South Korean Red Cross negotiating the sensitive issue of family reunions. ìI was expecting that people would not be very frank, that we would not be shown a lot of things,î he recalls. ìThings were actually worse than I expected. I rarely got out of the car except to go in and out of hotels and conference rooms.î Han, who has no family in the North, said Pyongyang is pushing tourism to the Mount Kumgang shrine purely for money. ìSouth Koreans are going there because it is, in fact, a beautiful mountain, and partly because itís in North Korea,î he says. ìBut except for the guards, they donít get to see North Koreans at all. Itís certainly an experience, and usually not a very pleasant one.î Larry Luxner is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.