Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests:
President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday called for a pragmatic diplomacy to maximize the national interest, adding, “I don’t agree with such concepts as pro-American or pro-Chinese policy.”
Lee made the remarks to Foreign Ministry officials at a ministry policy briefing. “If their national interests are matched, both nations can become allies. But if there is a clash of national interests, there is no alliance,” he said. “Of course, we should maintain a solid alliance with the U.S. But the U.S. would not want to maintain an alliance with South Korea if the alliance clashes with its own national interest.”
LMB also took time to crush Foreign Ministry morale:
Lee criticized the way ties with the U.S. and Japan have been handled. “If we look back on what our country has done in regional and multilateral cooperation, we can see that we have conducted diplomacy that is incompatible with the trends of the 21st century,” he said. “The Foreign Ministry has played a central role in doing that.” He added that “I am not merely dissatisfied with the ministry’s performance; it is worse than that. Let me make it clear that I have complaints about what the ministry has done so far.”
In addition, Lee called for the resumption of shuttle diplomacy with Japan and, more interestingly, the start of shuttle diplomacy with North Korea.
11 Comments
eliot spitzer and the duke of westminster can speak to that.
pragmatic hub of Asia
So in other words, Korea should be a “Balancer” in the region. Why does that sound so familar?
‘So in other words, Korea should be a “Balancer” in the region. Why does that sound so familar?’
no, not in other words but rather, in YOUR words. there’s a difference. 잊지 말아!
korea can talk all it wants
its not balancing anything
no one in the region cares what korea has to say
japan wont listen
china wont listen
NK wont listen
but who needs allies???
But who needs spelling lessons?
I think you mean punctuation, pal. (Who cares, anyway? It’s the internet._
Don’t have a rebuttal, I suppose. McNut makes a valid point.
Is Lord Palmerston a better example of “shuttle diplomacy” than Henry Kissinger?
What is wrong here? A Korean president who is not a total whack-job? This can’t be happening! How can Koreans now justify chopping their fingers off and tossing them at the Japanese Embassy?
Finally a prez who isn’t like the guy in my avatar. Gotta love it!
Finally we have A REAL PRESIDENT.
Please Koreans, dont ever vote liberal again. If you love Korea you will hate liberals.