Dr. Jang-hyun PaikVisiting Professor at Hanshin UniversitySteering Committee member at CINAP “The relations between the inter-Korean cooperation and the United States-Republic of Korea Mutual Assistance is being brought to light as criticisms emerge in all walks of life that the United States-Republic of Korea Working Group interferes in every case of the inter-Korean cooperation."Established in November 2018 for communication and mutual assistance during the process of propelling the denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and inter-Korean cooperation, the U.S-ROK Working Group is a working-level consultative body of the two governments. However, the U.S. government, utilizing the Working Group, got involved even into the humanitarian programs which were not sanctioned by the UN Security Council Resolution and that brought in collapsing of even the fully plausible programs, if the two Koreas collaborated and pursued. The U.S. put the brakes on a plan to dispatch cargo trucks to North Korea carrying Tamiflu. The most well-known case is the failure of aiding North Korea in providing Tamiflu, an antiviral medicine for the treatment of flu. In January 2019, the U.S. put the brakes on a plan to dispatch cargo trucks to North Korea carrying Tamiflu on the grounds that it could violate the sanctions on North Korea. In the end, North Korea refused to accept the aid as it got delayed. The Working Group also raised issues with projects on which the two Koreas have been working such as the Mt. Kumgang tour, the Kaesong Industrial Complex as well as the railway and road connection projects. The Working Group also raised issues with projects on which the two Koreas have been working such as the Mt. Kumgang tour, the Kaesong Industrial Complex as well as the railway and road connection projects. The History of the Korea-U.S. Relations“Why is this happening? Why does the South Korean government constantly look to the United States for cues in the process of the Inter-Korean cooperation?" The U.S. has taken the role of guardian for South Korea in diplomacy, military, and economy for the past several decades. Accordingly, the Korea-U. S. relations were unilateral and subordinate, and despite being a party directly involved, South Korea did not have the right to speak on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia issues. In 1953, during the Korea Armistice Agreement, talks concerning an armistice were proceeded and agreed by the U.S., North Korea, and China, excluding South Korea. When the first North Korean nuclear crisis broke out in 1994, the Clinton administration of the U.S. set up a plan of bombing North Korea and pushed it ahead without consulting the Kim Young-sam administration at all. In the history of the U.S.-Korea relations, the 2000 Inter-Korean summit held June 15 was a groundbreaking event. as South Korea attempted to make its own decisions for issues related to its future in the wake of the Inter-Korean summit. The Kim Dae-jung administration, with the confidence of its political legitimacy from achieving transfer of power from the ruling party for the first time, clearly expressed the determination to take the wheel in the driver's seat rather than sitting back in the passenger seat in establishing and executing North Korea policies. Since then, the voice of South Korea in the international community has grown and it is now unimaginable that any decision would be made without consulting South Korea regarding the Korean Peninsula issues. The cause of national self-determination has led the international community to respect Korea's position in consideration of its enhanced national power. For justifying national self-determination and considering Korea’s enhanced national power in the meantime, the international community became to respect Korea's position. "And yet, this did not lead to an equal relationship between the U.S. and Korea as international politics is played by power and the Korea-U.S Alliance is an alliance between the superpower and the weaker side which placed Korea fundamentally subordinate." In 2001, the Bush administration, from the beginning, made clear their position of the hard-line policy toward North Korea while raising an issue of the Kim Dae-jung Administration’s Embracing Policy toward North Korea. The neoconservatives, who led the Bush administration's foreign policy, insisted that North Korea, a rough state, be blockaded and under pressure. They emphasized, when implementing the North Korea policy, the strengthening of the Korea-U.S. alliance and policy coordination which, however, meant that South Korea should follow the U.S. as far as the North Korea policy is concerned. The conflicts between the two governments, with South Korea promoting an engagement policy while the US pursuing containment policy, were inevitable. Meanwhile, the increased autonomy of the Korean government has also prevented the United States from carrying out its policies without the cooperation of the Korean government. While the Bush administration wanted a more aggressive stance with the containment policy against North Korea, the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations continually pursued the embracing policy which is the engagement policy toward North Korea. In the end, the relations between Korea and the U.S. deteriorated, and it’s only after the second term of the Bush administration began that reached a way to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue when the U.S. changed its North Korea policy to the engagement policy. After it began, the Obama administration, too, actively practiced the engagement policy for a goal towards the realization of ‘a world without nuclear weapons’, and would engage the dialog with North Korea, but the South Korean governments, with the Lee Myung-bak and then Park Geun-hye administrations, wanted the containment policy with the collapse of the North Korea in mind. Through the U.S.-China summit, the South and North Korea were simultaneously pressured to have dialogue, but it failed to achieve fruitful results in a situation where both parties showed no willingness to do so. Balance between the Inter-Korean Cooperation andthe U. S.- Korea Mutual Assistance For the past 20 years, the South Korean government's North Korea policy has not been in harmony with that of the US government's which resulted in achieving almost nothing. In that situation, it was encouraging that the Trump administration declared that it would resolve the North Korean nuclear issue through dialogue. It was much anticipated that a new horizon would be opened on the Korean peninsula if President Trump's bold engagement policy would keep pace with the Moon Jae-in administration’s embracing policy toward North Korea. In May 2018, at the Singapore summit which was the first-ever DPRK-U.S summit meeting in history, President Trump came to agree with Kim Jung-un that ("ending hostile relations between North Korea and the U.S. and establishing a new U.S.-North Korea relations," "establishing a permanent and stable peace regime," and "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." ) The length of the agreement was only one page A4, but it laid out a blueprint of solutions after the U.S. acknowledged for the first time that the North Korean nuclear issue was caused by hostile relations between North Korea and the U.S. and agreed to create a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. However, the much-expected North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi in February 2019 collapsed without any agreement. Considering the remarks made by the officials from both sides after the talks, the Yongbyon nuclear facility and others as well as the discrepancy in calculation between the two sides over the and easing the economic sanctions on North Korea might be the cause of the collapse of the summit. Reviewing the Kim Yo-jung’s July 10 statement and Bolton’s memoirs, the collapse of the summit seems to have been driven by the United States. President Trump selected "no deal" over "small deal" in consideration of public opinion in the U.S. "As the Hanoi summit has fallen apart, the plans of the Moon Jae-in administration, which aimed to push forward the inter-Korean cooperation after resolving problems such as lifting sanctions against North Korea through the North Korea-U.S. negotiations, faced setbacks inevitably." Now, while efforts to mediate the North Korea-U.S. summit will continue, the road map of the ("settlement of North Korea-U.S. negotiation first and the promotion of inter-Korean cooperation next") will have to be revised. Separate from the U.S.-North Korea negotiations, the inter-Korean cooperation should be pursued. Different views between Seoul and Washington could be formed in the process of Seoul's independent push for inter-Korean cooperation. The newly appointed presidential aides on foreign affairs need to have courage and wisdom to seek equilibrium between inter-Korea cooperation and U.S-Korea mutual assistance. (End)
