S. Korean politicians intensify efforts to connect with Obama

By Shin Hae-in

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) -- Following Democrat Barack Obama's victory Wednesday in U.S. presidential election, South Korean politicians are intensifying their efforts to connect to America's first black leader.

The legwork appears most frantic within President Lee Myung-bak's conservative
party, as few of its members have close ties to the young leader. The ruling
Grand National Party (GNP) has traditionally enjoyed closer ties to the U.S.
Republican Party than their Democratic counterparts.
Although GNP lawmakers have acknowledged that most party members have only a
vague acquaintance with Obama and his views, which tend to be more liberal, they
have pledged to maintain a close relationship with the incoming U.S.
administration.
Foremost among GNP goals is the prompt ratification of a free trade pact between
the two countries, which has been pending with their respective legislatures for
over a year. Experts say an Obama government may seek a renegotiation of the
deal, something Seoul says it is opposed to.
The ruling party has set its hopes on Park Jin, a three-term legislator who
chairs the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, to help achieve its goals.
Park, who served as an interpreter for former President Kim Young-sam, is on good
terms with several officials who served under the former Bill Clinton
administration in the U.S., including Vice president-elect Joseph Biden and Frank
Jannuzi, Obama's Korea policy adviser, GNP sources say.
Another GNP lawmaker, Hwang Jin-ha, who served as Korea's ambassador in
Washington D.C. during the Clinton administration, also has ties to former
Defense Secretary William Cohen, a defense policy adviser to Obama, and Robert
Einhorn, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Center for Security and
International Studies and one of Obama's foreign policy advisers.
Park and Hwang will be among a group of South Korean legislators who will fly to
Washington on Nov. 17 to meet with Obama's aides to discuss pending issues
between the two countries.
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP), meanwhile, claims to have closer ties
than their GNP rivals to U.S. Democrats, who also took a majority of seats in the
U.S. Senate Wednesday. The DP says it is highly optimistic of the coming changes
in Washington's policy toward communist North Korea and the denuclearization
process.
Opposition members say Obama's policies on the Korean Peninsula will by strongly
influenced by policymakers such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Ambassador to Korea Donald
Gregg, all of whom have close ties to former President Kim Dae-jung. Kim, who
initiated a groundbreaking summit meeting with North Korea's leader in 2000, is
South Korea's first Nobel Peace Prize winner and the founder of the DP.
Another senior member of the party, Song Young-gil, who is currently leading a
special committee on improving Korea-U.S. ties, has posted on his Internet
homepage a photograph taken with Obama in Washington last January.
As "two people from the same generation," Song wrote on his site, he and Obama
shared a number of similar views on various matters when they met.
"Many of the Lee government's foreign policies must be revised now," Song told a
press briefing Thursday. "Our party will play a key role in renewing the
Seoul-Washington alliance and working closely on the denuclearization of North
Korea."
Another DP lawmaker, Song Min-soon, claims to maintain close contact with
officials in the Obama camp and key Democratic figures. Song is a former foreign
minister who served under the liberal Roh Moo-hyun government.
"Sweeping changes will take place in global security and in the economy," he
said. "We have to observe closely how these changes will affect the Korean
Peninsula and Northeast Asia."
"If our government adheres to its vague diplomatic views, we will have no other
way but to follow Washington's policy," he added. "It is time for our party to
play a role."