It is usual for news about a new U.S. ambassador to Seoul to make headlines here. Mark Lippert, who arrived here last week to assume his post, is no exception, with local media highlighting even his dog, which forced him and his pregnant wife to change their flight schedule.
Besides the traditional weight the position of U.S. envoy carries, there are some good reasons why Lippert is getting extra attention from the Korean media and public.
To begin with, at 41, he is the youngest among the 22 U.S. ambassadors who have been posted to South Korea.
At the same time, he is a political appointee, unlike most of his predecessors, who were career foreign policy officers. In the region, Lippert joins Caroline Kennedy, a member of the legendary American family, in Tokyo, and Max Baucus, a longtime U.S. senator, in Beijing.
We have yet to see whether these elements ― being a relatively young envoy and a political appointee ― will prove to be an advantage or disadvantage for him and how they will affect his performance as the top U.S. diplomat here.
What should be noted is that Lippert is Obama’s confidant ― he is one of the longest-serving foreign policy advisers to the U.S. president, with their ties and friendship dating back to 2005, when Obama was a senator.
He also has wide experience in the U.S. government, ranging from posts in the White House and State Department to the National Security Council and the Pentagon.
That the envoy has close ties with the president and an extensive network in the foreign policy and security apparatus in Washington certainly put him in a different position to his predecessors.
Most of all, he may be the first person whom Obama will want to talk to when he needs to make an important decision regarding Korean affairs.
This means Lippert may not be confined by the usual role of the ambassador and may exercise greater influence in Washington’s Korea policy. This will be good for both South Korea and the United States if he provides the right advice to his boss, and bad if not.
It is important, therefore, for Lippert to gain a full understanding of what is going on here and in the region as soon as possible, especially the military threats from North Korea.
As he said in his confirmation hearing and his arrival statement, his foremost and utmost job here should be achieving the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
With the six-party talks in hiatus for six years and Pyongyang’s bilateral talks with both Seoul and Washington at a standstill, the two allies need to find a breakthrough for resolving the North’s nuclear and missile threats.
It would be good, in this sense, if Lippert’s posting here could provide the momentum to reactivate efforts to make Pyongyang abandon its nuclear and missile ambitions.
Lippert said in his confirmation hearing that he would make public diplomacy a top priority and work to foster people-to-people exchanges to bring more Korean students and travelers to the U.S.
It would have been better for him to mention the importance of the other direction of public diplomacy as well.
An area of particular concern should be the Koreans who don’t like the United States. Few past ambassadors, including his immediate predecessor Sung Kim, the first Korean-American to take up the post, succeeded in alleviating the anti-Americanism that is apparent in some segments of Korean society.
We must keep this in mind because the recent decision to delay the transfer of the U.S. wartime operational control of Korean troops and not relocate parts of the military facilities in Yongsan and Dongducheon will certainly fan anti-U.S. sentiment. Tackling things like this requires more than enjoying bulgogi.
