Obama ‘negligent’ in embracing S. Korea’s opposition

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― President Barack Obama should step up efforts to reach out to South Korea’s opposition forces, especially amid the possibility of a power shift there in the year of parliamentary and presidential elections, an American expert said Sunday.

David Straub, associate director of the Korean Studies Program at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, said Obama has been “negligent” in trying to broaden support from South Korea’s opposition for his policy on the Korean Peninsula.

“President Obama, who is very popular among the young people of South Korea, should himself have taken a few hours during his visits to Seoul to appeal to them,” he said in a report on Obama’s policy on Korea.

Other senior U.S. officials should have made greater efforts to meet opposition leaders, establish personal relationships, and explain American thoughts about the situation on the peninsula, he added.

“The failure to do so may hurt U.S. interests, especially if the South Korean opposition wins the legislative and presidential elections this year,” said Straub, who was in charge of Korea affairs at the State Department in the early 2000s. He retired from the department in 2006 as a Senior Foreign Service Officer after a 30-year career focused on Northeast Asian affairs.