Critical to the realization of the ambitious goals set by South Korea's new president, Mr. Lee Myung Bak, is the forging of a new relationship with the United States. Mr. Lee's five-day visit to the U.S. last week, which included a meeting at Camp David, the U.S. president's weekend retreat, went a long way toward solidifying an alliance that was shaken during recent years. The key task now is following through on initiatives that are under way. Unfortunately for Mr. Lee, their success depends as much on the vagaries of U.S. politics as his own hard work.
In the two months since he took office, Mr. Lee has worked assiduously to prop up ties between Seoul and Washington — ties that seemed stretched to the breaking point when Mr. Roh Moo Hyun was in office. While Mr. Roh's administration concluded negotiations on the realignment of U.S. forces in Korea, dispatched Korean troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, and concluded a free-trade agreement with the U.S., perceptions of the bilateral relationship were colored by the wave of anti-Americanism Mr. Roh rode into office in 2002 and the fundamental split in interests between Seoul and Washington when dealing with North Korea.
Mr. Lee promised to stabilize the relationship between the two allies and use it as the cornerstone of his foreign policy. Central to the effort was a quick trip to the U.S. that would begin forging the personal ties that are central to relations with U.S. President George W. Bush. That strategy is not without risks: South Korean President Kim Dae Jung rushed to Washington in 2001 to meet the then new U.S. president. That meeting did not go well and began a downward spiral in U.S.-South Korea relations that anticipated the slide of the Roh years.