 |
| Image: Flickr User - Republic of Korea |
By Jung-Yeop Woo and Eileen Block
How South Korea can put its partnership with the United States on the right track.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye is about to visit Washington, D.C. Park will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on October 16 for a summit that originally was set for June this year, but had to be delayed because of a MERS outbreak in Korea. After the June summit was postponed, many observers thought that rescheduling the summit within a six month window would be very difficult. However, both governments managed to squeeze the summit into their respective president’s hectic schedules.
Washington and Seoul both faced pressure from the public, which saw the question of how soon both governments could reschedule the summit as an indication of the strength of the alliance. By rescheduling the summit relatively earlier than expected, both governments alleviated that kind of public pressure.
In a previous article for The Diplomat about the cancellation of the Park-Obama summit, I argued that the summit’s agenda will be the most important question. At the same time, I pointed out that an ill-framed summit could tarnish any important accomplishments off the summit. In June, the question was about the summits agenda since the two countries did not have any imminent issues to deal with. That means no policy deliverables were expected at that time. As a result, more attention were paid to perception issues, including how to compare Park’s visit with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s U.S. visit in April.
But what about now, four months after the original date for the Park summit?
Read the full story at The Diplomat