After seven years of uneasy relations with South Korean leaders whom the White House considered soft on North Korea, President George W. Bush will welcome Friday a South Korean counterpart who talks tough about the North.
Bush and Lee Myung-bak will be eager to signal a new, cooperative tone as they push a reluctant Congress to ratify an ambitious free trade deal, work to settle a spat over South Korea's ban of American beef and discuss ways to persuade the North to fulfill commitments in six-nation nuclear negotiations.
The beef ban may be a non-issue by the time the two men meet. Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported late Thursday that South Korea had tentatively agreed to resume U.S. beef imports.
But with only nine months left in Bush's presidency, and with the nuclear talks at an impasse, it may be too late for the leaders to settle a top foreign policy goal for the Bush administration: a deal to rid North Korea of its atomic bombs.
Lee, a former construction chief executive nicknamed "The Bulldozer" for his determination to get things done, has ended a decade of rule in which South Korea sought to reconcile with the North. The relief in Washington has been evident in the Bush administration's praise of Lee's insistence that the North follow through on nuclear pledges before receiving aid from its southern neighbor and rival.
Now, however, Lee's position on North Korea may turn out to be even tougher than Bush's because the United States is pressing hard for an agreement. Nuclear talks are stalled over whether the North will hand over a promised full declaration of its nuclear programs in return for concessions. The Bush administration apparently has decided that the declaration's exact contents are less important than an assurance that the nuclear negotiators can check up on the Kim Jong Il's government to make sure it has told the truth.
This has prompted skepticism even from within Bush's own political party.
Republican Rep. Ed Royce said Thursday that he raised the need to verify any North Korean actions in a meeting Thursday with Lee. "Congress is carefully watching the six-party talks, and solid verification is a must if the process is to move forward," Royce said in an interview.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried Thursday to head off criticism that the Bush administration is being too lenient or trusting. The administration insisted it is not giving up leverage over North Korea in the nuclear talks and will not take the North at its word. During a 30-minute news conference with reporters, Rice used the word "verification" or "verify" more than a dozen times.
The highlight of Lee's Washington visit will come when he is feted at the Camp David presidential retreat in mountains north of the capital. Jack Pritchard, the State Department's special envoy for North Korea negotiations until 2003, said at a recent conference that the Camp David invitation is an "extraordinary symbolic gesture and a guarantee of success of the summit, even if they just showed up and shook hands."
Several other signs also point to the leaders hitting it off. Bruce Klingner, a Northeast Asia analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said in an interview that both men are former businessmen with conservative free-market ideas; both are Christian; both say they want to hold the North accountable to its nuclear pledges; and both view the U.S.-South Korean relationship as crucial to Asian security.
By contrast, Bush's meetings with Lee's predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, who was elected on an anti-America platform, were often notable for their awkwardness, fueling the perception that the leaders did not like each other. Roh favored a so-called "sunshine" policy that provided aid without demanding concessions from North Korea.
Lee has also begun to address North Korea's mistreatment of its citizens, which the previous two South Korean presidents during Bush's tenure shied away from.
Klingner said that Lee, during his Washington visit, will be intent on showing that he values the U.S. relationship "and clearly wants to set a difference from five years ago, when President Roh said, `What's wrong with being anti-American?'"
Also high on the presidents' agenda will be an accord to slash tariffs and other barriers to trade. That deal could be in trouble as lawmakers, including Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, voice increasingly anti-free trade sentiments.
The main sticking point has been the ban on American beef. South Korea suspended American beef imports after a shipment contained animal parts that had been banned over concerns about mad cow disease, Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
BSE is a fatal disease that spreads easily causing progressive neurological degeneration in cattle.
The report of the ban being lifted followed overnight negotiations in Seoul between the sides, which were drafting an agreement to be announced later Friday, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Agriculture Ministry.
Ministry spokesman Kim Hyun-soo said the two sides reached agreement on "key sticking points" and were fine-tuning the wording of the agreement. He did not elaborate, only saying there would be an announcement later Friday.
Yonhap reported that Seoul agreed to relax quarantine regulations to allow imports of rib bones. It was not clear if Seoul would allow imports of other previously banned parts, such as spinal columns, skulls and intestinal parts believed at risk of carrying the brain-wasting disease.
The U.S. has demanded Seoul fully open its beef market, saying it is needed for congressional leaders in Washington to back a free trade accord that the two countries signed last year. Washington has also argued that American beef has been certified as safe by the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.
On the beef impasse, Republican Rep. Don Manzullo said Lee told lawmakers during his meeting with members of the House of Representatives that he "hoped to be able to resolve it this week before he leaves." Lee also met with senators.
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