An op-ed in The Korea Times weighs US candidates’ positions on Korea, including the KORUS FTA and ongoing six-party talks over North Korea’s denuclearization.

In sum, McCain supports free trade deals with South Korea, as well as continuing with the established framework of six-party negotiations involving Japan, China and Russia, as well as the two Koreas and the US. Obama is less clear on free trade, though from his statements one gathers he would not back a free trade deal. He has also spoken about departing from six way talks to embrace a more international effort on non-proliferation.

A reader comments

Obama clearly argues that strengthening the NPT, getting Russia to police its nukes, a test ban treaty, banning new warheads, and an international coalition against proliferation is better than ad hoc measures like the six-party talks. But, the GOP hates the word international or diplomacy.

While Obama comes across as the more international candidate, ironically it seems that, at least as far as Korea is concerned, the position as laid out by McCain is far more in line with the current leadership in Seoul.

As per the article

The Lee Myung-bak administration has taken considerable political heat for its part in advancing the FTA, as did the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration… Pulling the rug out from under the Korean government after all the work and sacrifice that has gone into it would be a major blow to Korean-U.S. relations.

The problem is that, as the author notes, President Lee Myung-bak’s ratings are at about 30 percent, up from the low teens not long ago. Thousands opposed a beef deal he signed with the US that was widely seen as a harbinger of the larger FTA deal, also very controversial here.

The same commenter writes of the FTA that

any candidate who supports both bilateral trade deals and multilateral trade liberalization isn’t pro-FTA. It’s opportunistic. Managed trade deals, like ROK-US FTA only help entrench interests in both nations, and benefit politicians who gain campaign funds.

While I am of two minds when it comes to globalization, I think there’s a lot of truth to this statement, and I know there’s more than a few in Korea who feel the same way.

So while I do think that an Obama presidency may force a change in Korea-US relations, that change, in my view, would be a positive for Korea, as it would force Lee into a more internationalist stance, in line with Obama’s positions, and less a singularly defined Seoul-Washington alliance. And as for Obama’s statements that he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, looks like he may not get that chance.

Running with the theme of looking at the US from Korea, today’s statements from Bush about the withdrawl of 8000 troops from Iraq, citing reduced violence in the country, I would direct readers here. According to the author, the reason violence is down in Iraq has less to do with the surge and more to do with the fact that the country has divided itself along ethnic and sectarian lines. Basically, in the author’s words, “There’s no one left to kill.”

So Bush’s description of life in Iraq as “returning to normal” sounds a lot like saying the DMZ dividing the two Korea’s is normal, which sadly it is becoming.