The Death of an Alliance, Part 26

We should have called their bluff.

South Korea allegedly threatened the United States that it would have to rethink the two countries’ longstanding alliance if Washington refused to offer concessions to North Korea in the recently concluded nuclear dismantlement negotiations, a U.S. expert said.

“South Koreans told (the U.S. delegation) . . . if you don’t follow through, get us to the next level, we consider this an alliance issue,” Derek Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.

He was referring to the negotiation process between South Korea and the U.S. that eventually led Washington to sign onto a principle statement on resolving the nuclear standoff on Sept. 19.

The usual denials follow. Mitchell draws some of the same conclusions about our multilateral diplomacy from this that I have drawn:

Mitchell, a former U.S. Department of Defense official, said there is a “high level of frustration” within the George W. Bush administration and in Congress over the pressure applied by South Korea and China to make the concessions to the North at the six-party talks.

The U.S. “can’t count on major powers at the table,” he said, adding that there are concerns that it may find itself isolated in the negotiations.

Frustration that this Administration has been willing to tolerate, for reasons I’m no longer able to explain. Bluntly stated, the security of the United States from nuclear proliferation is worth more than the privilege of subsidizing the economy of a nation that assails us as imperialist for the grave crime of trying to protect it, and ourselves.

Who needs that?