S. Korea: Roh Thanks USFK for Presence (Roh rehashes his words again)

President-elect Roh Moo-hyun said he had been mislead as a leftist in a speech at a seminar hosted by the Heritage Foundation Thursday. Roh elaborated about his political direction to clear misunderstanding, emphasizing that all Koreans appreciate and want the United States Forces Korea's presence in the country. While Roh had mentioned a similar statement before, his focus was mainly on "self-reliance in relations with the US." However, Roh used exceptional phrases like "thanks to the US, who bled to protect the country in the Korean War," and "the Korea-US alliance contributed to economic revival as well as security." Also, Roh, unlike in previous remarks, urged Pyongyang to change its attitude, not Washington, to solve the current nuclear tension.

"During the presidential election campaign, rival candidates attacked each other by exaggerating weaknesses. Although I don't consider Lee Hoi-chang extreme right, I criticized him as extreme conservative rightist. I am not sure if he truly regards me as a leftist, but he and his friends also attacked me for being on the extreme left. Consequently we were dubbed as two extremes of the political spectrum by the media. Because I didn't have much clout at the time, I couldn't send enough envoys to represent my tendency. As a result, I have heard many Americans are concerned that I was on the extreme, radical left. In fact, such an estimation is not correct and not right in more ways than one. I am trying to clear the misunderstanding, but there isn't enough time to write a letter or have an interview with each and every one of the countless TV stations and newspapers in the US."

"Pyongyang's attempts to develop a nuclear weapons program are intolerable. However, the resolution should come from peaceful measures such as dialogue and diplomacy. Washington, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, and the international community have already agreed upon this. Korea is suffering a great loss just by the insecurity from possibility of war; the Moody's downgrade of sovereign rating outlook proves that. I have urged Pyongyang not to aggravate the situation any more. We don't want war or a collapse of the North. However, North Korea must realize there is no exit other than that of reform and opening up.

Compare the above speech with the previous one in the following(from AP via YAHOO!NEWS). The following article is closer to his true mindset than the one above. He is on a tight leash again. He has a loose lip along with almost reflexive defiance.

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Wednesday February 19, 6:25 PM

S. Korea's Roh Opposes Force on N. Korea

South Korea's president-elect said Wednesday he would oppose any consideration of U.S. military action to force North Korea to halt its suspected nuclear weapons development.

President Bush has said he prefers a diplomatic solution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear activities, but has also maintained that "all options are on the table."

Roh Moo-hyun, who takes office on Feb. 25, told members of the Korean Chamber of Commerce that he was "willing to differ with the United States," his country's No. 1 ally, "if that helps prevent war."

"An attack on North Korea could trigger a war engulfing the entire Korean Peninsula," Roh said. "It's a serious issue, and at this moment I am against even consideration of such an option."

South Korea would likely suffer devastation in any war with North Korea because Seoul lies within artillery range of communist guns on the border. At the same time, many South Koreans don't view North Korea as a serious military threat and believe the United States is exacerbating tensions more than North Korea.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jun told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the North's 1.1 million-member army was busy with annual winter training, "increasing its readiness."

Lee did not rule out the possibility that North Korea might further escalate tensions by resuming missile tests, but said the situation in the North was subdued in comparison to a similar nuclear crisis in 1994, when North Korea declared a state of war and moved much of its population into underground shelters.

North Korea said Wednesday its recent moves to escalate the nuclear standoff were made in "self-defense," and accused Washington of "pushing the situation to the phase of confrontation" by refusing to sign a nonaggression treaty.

North Korea is "now taking bold measures" to revive its moribund economy, an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the North's official news agency, KCNA.

"It is only the U.S. that does not wish to see our socialist system make progress and our country prosper and is desperately working to hamstring its efforts," the spokesman said. The North faces widespread food and energy shortages _ problems widely blamed on the failure of its centrally planned economy and devastating droughts and floods.

Despite the tensions, 500 South Koreans will travel on a newly built cross-border road on Thursday for reunions with relatives they have not seen since the Korean War. The three-day reunions are the sixth of their kind since a North-South summit in 2000.

The nuclear standoff began in October, when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a covert nuclear program. Washington and its allies suspended fuel shipments, and the North retaliated by expelling U.N. monitors, taking steps to restart frozen nuclear facilities and withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

North Korea says it is reactivating its facilities to generate badly needed electricity, but U.S. officials say the equipment could be used to produce atomic bombs.

North Korea's recent moves to restart its nuclear facilities have been widely viewed as attempts to pressure Washington into direct negotiations on a nonaggression pact.

On Tuesday, North Korea accused the United States of plotting an attack and threatened to withdraw from the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and has kept an uneasy peace along its heavily fortified border with South Korea.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the North's threat to abandon the armistice is part of a series of North Korean statements, "all of which only serve to hurt, isolate and move North Korea backward."

The International Atomic Energy Agency recently found North Korea in breach of its commitments on nuclear programs and referred the matter to the U.N. Security Council.

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