South Korea Takes Russia's Side in Dispute Over U.S. Missile Defense Plan
By PATRICK E. TYLER
SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 27 - Less than a week before he meets President Bush in Washington, the president of South Korea today publicly took Russia's side in the debate over Washington's plan for a national missile defense.
A joint communiqué issued by President Kim Dae Jung with the visiting president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, declared that the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which would be threatened by Washington's project, was a "cornerstone of strategic stability." The treaty should be preserved and strengthened, the communiqué said.
The declaration by Mr. Kim - whose country is protected with the help of 37,000 American troops - was one of the strongest to date by one of America's Asian allies. South Korea's statement echoed concerns among European powers that the United States was pressing forward with missile defenses in a manner that could set off a new round of nuclear competition by Russia, China and South Asia.
President Bush has asserted that he will withdraw from the 1972 ABM Treaty if necessary in order to build national missile defenses capable of protecting the United States against the threat of a limited ballistic missile attack from states like North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
It was not immediately clear why Mr. Kim decided to identify with Moscow's view of the issue. But as the Bush administration shows signs of doubting North Korea's sincerity in dismantling its weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Putin has played an energetic role in promoting reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, flying to Pyongyang last July to meet the reclusive North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, and now preparing to bring him to Moscow for more talks on how to reduce tensions.
It is also possible that Mr. Kim's criticism reflected a general concern in Asia that the American missile defense plans will isolate China by rendering ineffective its tiny nuclear arsenal.
For South Korea, China has played a constructive role in working for Korean reconciliation, treating Kim Jong Il to a tour of booming Shanghai this winter and doing similar missionary work with North Korea's hard-line military leaders. Li Peng, the second ranking member of the ruling Politburo in Beijing, is due in Seoul next month for a state visit.
The joint statement further indirectly criticized the United States by cataloging the arms control treaties or agreements that remain unfulfilled, at least in part because of objections to their ratification in the United States. The principal accords outstanding are the Start II Treaty, which would cut cold war nuclear arsenals in half, and another that would ban nuclear testing. Russia has ratified both, and Mr. Kim said he "welcomed" Russia's act.
Though neither president mentioned the United States by name at a brief news conference and steered questions to economic matters, the object of the communiqué's criticism was unmistakable.
"The Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea agreed that the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty is the cornerstone of strategic stability and an important foundation of international efforts on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation," the statement said. "Both sides expressed their hope that the Start II Treaty will enter into force as soon as possible and that as soon as possible after that, the Start III Treaty will be signed and that the ABM Treaty will be preserved and strengthened."
In a reference to the test ban treaty, the Russian and South Korean leaders said they "appealed to other countries to ratify the treaty without any delays and they also appealed to those countries whose ratification is needed for it to come into effect."
Since he won election a year ago, Mr. Putin has undertaken a diplomatic campaign to persuade the United States to forgo its large-scale missile defense plans. He has proposed instead to develop regional and mobile missile defenses that could be brought to bear against missile threats from "rogue" states. Russia presented that concept to NATO's secretary general, George Robertson, in Moscow last week.
Russia has also sought to show that more intensive diplomacy, such as Mr. Kim's opening to North Korea, might go a long way in reducing the threat from such states. To that end, Mr. Putin also has been courting Kim Jong Il - thus far unsuccessfully - to abandon North Korea's missile program.
On other fronts, Mr. Putin's visit here was a hard slog of negotiations over how to resolve Russia's $1.8 billion debt to Seoul and how to overcome formidable obstacles to building new railway links.
Work on one rail line connecting Seoul, Pyongyang and Sinuiji on North Korea's border with China already has begun, but Mr. Putin is lobbying for the $1 billion rehabilitation of a second line northeast to Vladivostok that would connect South Korea's ports and industrial centers with Russia's impoverished Far East.
Mr. Putin said that linking both Koreas with the trans-Siberian railway would cut freight deliveries from the Pacific to Europe from 25 to 12 days, while also providing a humanitarian rescue for North Korea, which would reap more than $100 million a year in revenues.