The Marmot’s Hole

It seems that not only did South Korea, at the behest of the ironically named National Security Council, apparently ask the United States to omit reference to its “nuclear umbrella” in a joint statement following last year’s Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), but it also may have asked the United States to designate Japan as a “hypothetical enemy nation.”

Lawmaker Chung Mong-jun, during a parliamentary audit of the Korean embassy in Washington, told Korean ambassador to the United States Lee Tae-shik that there was “talk that during last year’s SCM, Korea was turned down on a request to refer to Japan as a ‘hypothetical enemy state.’”

Ambassador Lee said he didn’t think the issue was raised during the talks.

When reporters later questioned whether Seoul would have been able to ask something like that considering the U.S.-Japan alliance, Chung responded by saying, basically, that he would have found it hard to believe South Korean negotiators could have asked Washington to drop reference to the nuclear umbrella, too, but they did.

If true, these revelations could make lead to criticism that the Roh administration has encouraged the North Koreans to act as they have.

Personally, I find it hard to believe even the Roh administration would have the stones/lack of common sense to ask the Americans to designate Japan a “potential enemy.” But then again, this is the Roh administration we’re talking about…