This is the fourth in a "Letters to President Yoon" series The Korea Times has organized to convey policy recommendations in open letters from politicians, scholars and experts to President Yoon Suk-yeol following his May 10 inauguration. ― ED.
By Stephen Costello
Dear Mr. President,
Congratulations on your election and inauguration as new South Korean president. You should be as surprised as anyone, considering how unlikely your come-from-nowhere candidacy has been.
Assuming the presidential office will do unexpected things to your own way of thinking and to some of your previously held ideas. In short, others elected to this office ― both in Korea and in other democracies ― and with far more experience than you, have been remade in some senses by the responsibilities, pressures, and perspectives that it affords.
You should allow yourself to be impressed and awed by your inauguration. That is the only real human reaction to such an event. One aspect of the presidency ― in both Korea and the U.S. ― is the singular power of the president to set the tone of his administration, hold people accountable, and make corrections as you go.
The most important aspects of this power are not spelled out. We can see from recent Korean and American history that the president's ability to hire and fire, set an ethical tone, and to decide on a policy course, are, in the end, personal for the chief executive. When it comes time to decide on the big things it will be just you, in your office, with your conscience. To whom will you owe your best efforts? And for what?
Putting partisan politics aside is difficult, particularly after a presidential campaign. This has always been true. But it is worth doing even if just as an exercise. Doing so would also probably make you a better president. If we were to put politics aside, what threats, opportunities, and options do you, and South Korea, face after you were sworn in?
The good news is that your predecessors have left South Korea in very good shape, with abundant security, capacity, and friendships. In addition to this and tightly connected to it, they have left a thriving, modern democracy.
One way to think of your short stewardship of this office is to appreciate that your first responsibility is to "do no harm." Maintenance of what others have built is your highest priority. This is important because your two conservative predecessors struggled with this part of the job. You must do better.
After that, your second priority is how to advance the country's real and authentic interests in realistic and practical ways. This is important because South Korean presidents, just like those in the U.S., have often mistaken the promises they made, or the conventional wisdom about an issue, or the ideologically correct policy, for the best choice.
But in many cases it was not only a bad choice, it was disastrous for the country and for the president. Instead, you can get good advice if you want it, and you can make better choices if you choose to.
Many people are saying that South Korea faces the most difficult times ever, or the most impossible choices. It is consistently said that South Korea's choices are zero-sum, or that it must accept that it is a "shrimp among whales." Nonsense. Please don't believe those voices.
Most obviously this applies to South Korea's relations with China and the U.S. Foreign Ministers Kang Kyung-wha and Chung Eui-yong were both adamant that South Korea has positive opportunities with both its ally and its neighbor, and that they are not mutually exclusive. They were correct, and your attention to those opportunities is your primary policy job. If you can get that basket of issues mostly right, everything else will be easier.
The big opportunity with the U.S. is that you will be dealing with an experienced adult, who has enough self-confidence that he does not have to be a bully. You are very lucky here, and you should make the most of President Joe Biden's openness.
No South Korean president since Kim Dae-jung has been able to impress his views on his U.S. counterpart. DJ himself had only three of his five years to do so. But in that time he and Bill Clinton changed the trajectory of the Korean Peninsula. That is your example to reach for.
The second opportunity you have with your ally is that you should come with a plan. Most observers assume that the U.S. side will be sketching out for the South Korean side what it wants, and what South Korea's options are. While this may be the general expectation, it is not appropriate for these times, nor is it in the interests of South Korea or the U.S.
Instead, you should remember that U.S. administrations since 2001 have been getting South Korea very badly wrong, and limiting its options. The U.S. destruction of the working Agreed Framework 20 years ago, at a time when North Korea had no nuclear weapons or ICBMs, is just the most obvious example.
For a more recent example, the U.S. president brought the Peninsula to the brink of war in 2017, at least rhetorically, and had to be "handled" until he was out of office. U.S. failings toward South Korea were unilateral and against the interests of South Korea and all other regional states, and they have been deeply bipartisan.
Better for you to remember that it's your country, it's your peninsula, and it's your neighborhood. You have very good expertise about what would work. Contrary to what many senior officials in Seoul and Washington will tell you, South Korea is perfectly able to be an independent actor.
Washington needs your guidance and your strong advocacy for a real, practical plan, far more than anyone would admit. Find the people who know how to put that plan together and start this new regional strategic initiative now.
Part of that new initiative would be the role of China, your looming, insecure and non-democratic neighbor. China has often acted as a bully in recent years, with sometimes extensive economic consequences. But they're not going anywhere, and neither are you. In addition, they are largely a status-quo power, unlike today's Russia, so you have multiple channels through which you can maintain mutually beneficial relations, projects, and political contacts.
Because of the ongoing U.S.-China rivalry, both governments will continue to court South Korea, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Presidents Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in never seemed to appreciate the power this gave them. You should be sure to appreciate that power and use it to steer policies that advance collective security and stability.
Russia's war on Ukraine has shaken relations among countries. Moscow is bleeding economic, diplomatic, soft and hard power. That means China will be even more burdened by its dependent neighbor, but also more flexible diplomatically. As uncomfortable as the current Chinese position is, it holds out unique options for peace diplomacy surrounding the Ukraine war.
Those options exist in parallel with those relating to North Korea, and the urgent need for a sanctions-for-nuclear-capacity deal. That deal is your responsibility, no one else's. There should not be another Hanoi meeting, with South Korea on the sidelines.
From now on Seoul should be convener and organizer, with clear instructions to the participants. Holding their feet to the fire. Lock the door until they have an agreement. That is the lesson from the past three decades. Now it's up to you to put this plan together, using all the people who can help, and get that first deal done. Good luck.
Sincerely,
Stephen Costello
The writer (scost55@gmail.com) managed the Kim Dae Jung Peace Foundation Washington office in the 1990s. He directed the Korea program at the Atlantic Council there from 1999 to 2004. He now directs AsiaEast.Org, a policy initiative focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia.
By Stephen Costello
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Congratulations on your election and inauguration as new South Korean president. You should be as surprised as anyone, considering how unlikely your come-from-nowhere candidacy has been.
Assuming the presidential office will do unexpected things to your own way of thinking and to some of your previously held ideas. In short, others elected to this office ― both in Korea and in other democracies ― and with far more experience than you, have been remade in some senses by the responsibilities, pressures, and perspectives that it affords.
You should allow yourself to be impressed and awed by your inauguration. That is the only real human reaction to such an event. One aspect of the presidency ― in both Korea and the U.S. ― is the singular power of the president to set the tone of his administration, hold people accountable, and make corrections as you go.
The most important aspects of this power are not spelled out. We can see from recent Korean and American history that the president's ability to hire and fire, set an ethical tone, and to decide on a policy course, are, in the end, personal for the chief executive. When it comes time to decide on the big things it will be just you, in your office, with your conscience. To whom will you owe your best efforts? And for what?
Putting partisan politics aside is difficult, particularly after a presidential campaign. This has always been true. But it is worth doing even if just as an exercise. Doing so would also probably make you a better president. If we were to put politics aside, what threats, opportunities, and options do you, and South Korea, face after you were sworn in?
The good news is that your predecessors have left South Korea in very good shape, with abundant security, capacity, and friendships. In addition to this and tightly connected to it, they have left a thriving, modern democracy.
One way to think of your short stewardship of this office is to appreciate that your first responsibility is to "do no harm." Maintenance of what others have built is your highest priority. This is important because your two conservative predecessors struggled with this part of the job. You must do better.
After that, your second priority is how to advance the country's real and authentic interests in realistic and practical ways. This is important because South Korean presidents, just like those in the U.S., have often mistaken the promises they made, or the conventional wisdom about an issue, or the ideologically correct policy, for the best choice.
But in many cases it was not only a bad choice, it was disastrous for the country and for the president. Instead, you can get good advice if you want it, and you can make better choices if you choose to.
Many people are saying that South Korea faces the most difficult times ever, or the most impossible choices. It is consistently said that South Korea's choices are zero-sum, or that it must accept that it is a "shrimp among whales." Nonsense. Please don't believe those voices.
Most obviously this applies to South Korea's relations with China and the U.S. Foreign Ministers Kang Kyung-wha and Chung Eui-yong were both adamant that South Korea has positive opportunities with both its ally and its neighbor, and that they are not mutually exclusive. They were correct, and your attention to those opportunities is your primary policy job. If you can get that basket of issues mostly right, everything else will be easier.
The big opportunity with the U.S. is that you will be dealing with an experienced adult, who has enough self-confidence that he does not have to be a bully. You are very lucky here, and you should make the most of President Joe Biden's openness.
No South Korean president since Kim Dae-jung has been able to impress his views on his U.S. counterpart. DJ himself had only three of his five years to do so. But in that time he and Bill Clinton changed the trajectory of the Korean Peninsula. That is your example to reach for.
The second opportunity you have with your ally is that you should come with a plan. Most observers assume that the U.S. side will be sketching out for the South Korean side what it wants, and what South Korea's options are. While this may be the general expectation, it is not appropriate for these times, nor is it in the interests of South Korea or the U.S.
Instead, you should remember that U.S. administrations since 2001 have been getting South Korea very badly wrong, and limiting its options. The U.S. destruction of the working Agreed Framework 20 years ago, at a time when North Korea had no nuclear weapons or ICBMs, is just the most obvious example.
For a more recent example, the U.S. president brought the Peninsula to the brink of war in 2017, at least rhetorically, and had to be "handled" until he was out of office. U.S. failings toward South Korea were unilateral and against the interests of South Korea and all other regional states, and they have been deeply bipartisan.
Better for you to remember that it's your country, it's your peninsula, and it's your neighborhood. You have very good expertise about what would work. Contrary to what many senior officials in Seoul and Washington will tell you, South Korea is perfectly able to be an independent actor.
Washington needs your guidance and your strong advocacy for a real, practical plan, far more than anyone would admit. Find the people who know how to put that plan together and start this new regional strategic initiative now.
Part of that new initiative would be the role of China, your looming, insecure and non-democratic neighbor. China has often acted as a bully in recent years, with sometimes extensive economic consequences. But they're not going anywhere, and neither are you. In addition, they are largely a status-quo power, unlike today's Russia, so you have multiple channels through which you can maintain mutually beneficial relations, projects, and political contacts.
Because of the ongoing U.S.-China rivalry, both governments will continue to court South Korea, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Presidents Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in never seemed to appreciate the power this gave them. You should be sure to appreciate that power and use it to steer policies that advance collective security and stability.
Russia's war on Ukraine has shaken relations among countries. Moscow is bleeding economic, diplomatic, soft and hard power. That means China will be even more burdened by its dependent neighbor, but also more flexible diplomatically. As uncomfortable as the current Chinese position is, it holds out unique options for peace diplomacy surrounding the Ukraine war.
Those options exist in parallel with those relating to North Korea, and the urgent need for a sanctions-for-nuclear-capacity deal. That deal is your responsibility, no one else's. There should not be another Hanoi meeting, with South Korea on the sidelines.
From now on Seoul should be convener and organizer, with clear instructions to the participants. Holding their feet to the fire. Lock the door until they have an agreement. That is the lesson from the past three decades. Now it's up to you to put this plan together, using all the people who can help, and get that first deal done. Good luck.
Sincerely,
Stephen Costello
The writer (scost55@gmail.com) managed the Kim Dae Jung Peace Foundation Washington office in the 1990s. He directed the Korea program at the Atlantic Council there from 1999 to 2004. He now directs AsiaEast.Org, a policy initiative focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia.
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