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How U.S. Midterm Elections Could Affect Korea Policy
The moment the results are out, President Barack Obama will deliver his government's final position on the free trade agreement to Korea. The deal, concluded in 2008, has been stuck in the parliaments of the two countries since. The Obama administration will study the profiles of senators and representatives in the new Congress before deciding whether it is feasible for it to ratify the FTA, diplomats in Washington said. "The Obama administration will present an optimal suggestion to Seoul before the G20 summit opens there depending on the election results," a diplomat there said. If the Republicans regain majority control of the House of Representatives, Democratic Rep. Sander Levin, who has vehemently opposed the Korea-U.S. FTA, will step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles the FTA bill, and will probably succeeded by Republican Rep. David Camp, a trade liberalist. That would make it easier to win ratification of the bill. And if the Republicans regain control of the Senate as well, it would be possible to see the FTA ratified by Congress early next year and the deal to come into effect in the second half of next year. A Republican sweep would also affect other areas of Korea policy. The Republican Party has traditionally valued Korea-U.S. relations and is also likely to will buttress the alliance that Obama has strengthened. Being traditionally more hawkish, the Republicans are likely urge the Obama administration to be tough on North Korea and put it back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism if they gain control. Cuban-born Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who has been named by the Republicans as the new chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is going to submit a bill on this to the new Congress as soon as it opens. A congressional staffer said the North could easily be put back on the blacklist given its attack on the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan and an assassination attempt on former North Korean Workers Party secretary Hwang Jang-yop, who defected to South Korea and died in early October this year, as well as because of exports of weapons of mass destruction and related materials. Posted by: Steve White 2010-11-02 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=308865 |