Policy Agreements and Disagreements (Essay Sample)

Policy agreements and disagreements
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Policy agreements and disagreements
Introduction
South Korea and USA are well known for their good relationships when it comes to agreeing on policies. However, like any other countries, they have also suffered from policy disagreements. These policies either enable good existence or stir wars. This paper is going to discuss the various polices that South Korea and USA had from the year 1999 to 2009.
When President Bush came to power, President Kim dae Joong was still the president of South Korea. Kim dae Joong had introduced the sunshine policy. The main aim for the policy was to soften North Korea so that South Korea and North Korea can interact and engage in economic assistance. Despite agreements and talks in the six-party talk, U.S. and South Korea still have a problem dealing with the subsequent nuclear crises spawned by North Korea.[Jong-Yun Bae. South Korean Strategic Thinking toward North Korea: The Evolution of the Engagement Policy and Its Impact upon U.S.-ROK Relations. Asian Survey. Vol. 50, No. 2 (March/April 2010), pp. 335-355 ]
The sunshine policy included that South Korea would loosen its restriction on the private sector towards North Korea so that they could involve themselves in business. The sunshine policy also stated South Korea would provide assistants to North Korea. At first, the policy worked but then North Korea withdrew later when South Korea insisted on building a fortress where all families would be re united both from South and North Korea.
Bush was made to change his mind after the tragic 11 September terrorist attack on the World trade center. The U.S called North Korea part of the evil plan. This made North Korea withdraw talks with South Korea. This shift on the U.S towards North Korea changed the environment for regionalism. The regionalism was put in between new U.S. boldness and resurgent nuclear blackmail by North Korea. The search for regionalism could have been complicated by the Japan’s growing military activism and South Korea’s reinforced soft posture towards North Korea aroused many doubts.[Lowell Dittmer. Assessing American Asia Policy Asian Survey Vol. 47, No. 4 (July/August 2007), pp. 521-535]
South Korea continued to provide aid to North Korea. South Korea received criticism because during the United Nations forum, countries were required to vote condemning North Korea’s human rights record. This continued to weaken the US-ROK alliances due to the sunshine policy. Some critics say that the Sunshine policy made South Korea favor North Korea instead of U.S.[Jong-Yun Bae. South Korean Strategic Thinking toward North Korea: The Evolution of the Engagement Policy and Its Impact upon U.S.-ROK Relations. Asian Survey. Vol. 50, No. 2 (March/April 2010), pp. 335-355 ]
Kim Dae Jung and Bush openly disagreed on ways to deal with North Korea. President Bush advocated for a harder line but President Kim advocated for a soft line. Kim Dae Jung presidency term ended in 2003 just when President Bush had been appointed presidency. They agreed on how they would make the US-ROK alliances work.
President Kim Dae Jung was quoted saying, "President Bush and I covered the whole variety of issues in ROK-U.S. relations. It has been a most useful exchange of views. We have agreed to work together towards the further strengthening of the ROK-U.S. alliance and our close policy coordination in dealing with North Korea towards to goal of ending the Cold War and strengthening peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”["Remarks by President Bush and President Kim Dae-Jung of South Korea" The White House. Retrieved on 14th January 14, 2012, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010307-6.html]
After the reign of Kim Dae Jung, Roh moo hyun took over. Roh moo hyun was considered an anti-American even before his presidential race. Moreover, this did not alter his effort to become the president. He succeeded Kim Dae Jung whose presidency was marked with the Sunshine Policy. Roh Moo Hyun continued the sunshine policy of engagement towards North Korea. It was stated that the reason why the US-ROK alliance was on the merge of collapsing was on the nature of South Korea. They were believed to be Anti-Americanism. This was among the major criticism of Roh Moo Hyun in his period of rule.[Hilary Jan Izatt and Gi-Wook Shin. Anti-American and Anti-Alliance Sentiments in South Korea. Asian SurveyVol. 51, No. 6 (November/December 2011), pp. 1113-1133 ]
Roh Moo Hyun public hostility to the United State first came out publicly in 2002. This was provoked by an incidence that involved two South Korean Citizens. The South Korean middle school girls were crashed to death by a U.S army armored bridge-laying vehicle (an AVBL). Although the Roh administration insisted a South Korean trial, the soldiers were still tried in the United States by a U.S. Army court martial.
Although it was obvious that the accident happened on line on duty also referred to as part of the convoy, South Korea still insisted on a South Korean Trial although it was a U.S responsibility according to the agreement known as The Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S and South Korea. This was among the major disagreements between Roh Moo Hyun and Bush’s administration. The policy stated that while on the line of duty, any American soldier should be tried in the homeland.[Chuck Mason R.. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA): What Is It, and How Has It Been Utilized? Congressiol Research Service. January 5, 2011 /sgp/crs/natsec/RL34531.pdf]
Roh Moo Hyun and Bush were often in a disagreement concerning the Sunshine policy. While Roh Moo Hyun continued the sunshine policy agreement of Kim Dae Jung and North Korea, the Bush administration was still opposing it. Bush insisted on the hard way of disarmament while Roh Moo Hyun continued the Sunshine policy in which humanitarian assistant was still being provided to North Korea. Following the July 2006 missile attack, Roh Moo Hyun cut his humanitarian assistants to North Korea. During the disarmament process, bush’s administration was angry with Roh Moo Hyun for not coming along in the disarmament process. Additionally, Roh Moo Hyun was also angry at the Bush administration for ignoring all the gains that South Korea had made. The main reason why South Korea withdrew from the missile test is that South Korea did not want to lose its inter-Korea alliance.
After the missile launch, United States and South Korea differed on how to handle Pyongyang. South Korea insisted that they should go slow on him because they were afraid of the fall of Kim Jong II of North Korea regime. With the fall out of Kim Jong II, this would result too many North Koreas refugees running to South Korea, which would affect the economy of South Korea.[Carin Zissis. The South Korean Divide. Council on Foreign Relations Updated October 26, 2006 /culture-and-foreign-policy/south-korean-divide/p11815]
Apart from the disagreements between The U.S and South Korea towards the sunshine policy agreement of North Korea, Roh Moo Yang was still nice to the Bush’s administration. Following the treaty that both countries had signed in helping each other in the war, Roh Moo Hyun was still supportive towards it. During the military campaign, Roh Moo Hyun deployed troops to Iraq to assist the Americans in the military campaign. In his defensive speech, Roh Moo Hyun said that the deployment of the troop was only a peace keeping mission and that such acts was required in order to soften the United States in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.
During the reign of Roh Moo Hyun and Bush, a free trade treaty was signed. South Korea began negotiations with the United States for a free Trade agreement. The agreement was signed on 30th January 2007. After the agreement was signed, approval of the agreement was delayed when the U.S president George Bush fast-track trade authority expired. The United States Congress expressed objections towards the treaty citing concerns over the United States beef exports and the automobiles bilateral trade.[Mark Manyin E and William Cooper H. The Proposed South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) updated January 2007, http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/81996.pdf]
Major complains were launched that Roh Moo Hyun was acting quickly toward the agreement and that the effect of the agreement would be harmful to certain sectors especially towards the agricultural sector but still Roh Moo Hyun supported it. The United States did not like the idea that South Korea could export items to any part of the world. Some of the Americans also complained that they wanted a steel importation to South Korea.
The United States exporters complained of lack of transparency in the Southern Korea Trading and regulatory systems. In the quarterly trade action meetings, the transparency issues for South Korea become a very big issue. The United States also complained that South Korea’s capital city Seoul used its government regulations to discriminate against foreign firms in politically sensitive industries for instance the automobiles and telecommunications.
In late December 2003, South Korea among other nations banned beef export from United States of America. This happened after the United States government reported the discovery of a cow with mad cow disease or scientific terms bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Before that, South Korea was United States third largest foreign buyer of the beef. The trade talk negotiations could not continue if South Korea had still imposed the beef n. In 2006, South Korea agreed to lift the ban. South Korea together with the United States agreed that they woul...