YONHAP NEWS

Opposition slams Lee Myung-bak's 'humble diplomacy'

   By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, April 30 (Yonhap) -- The chairman of South Korea's main opposition party fired a salvo at President Lee Myung-bak Wednesday, claiming that his "cream puff diplomacy" is embarrassing the country.

   Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the United Democratic Party, asserted that Lee's low-key posture toward the United States and Japan has resulted in China's arrogant attitude towards a riot by Chinese demonstrators during Sunday's Beijing Olympic torch relay in Seoul.

   "Instead of making an earnest apology about the violent action its demonstrators conducted here, the Chinese government has called it a 'reasonable move' to protect the torch," Sohn said during the party's senior members meeting Wednesday. "Lee's humble diplomacy is belittling South Korea before China and other countries."
Chinese demonstrators on Sunday violently clashed with South Korean activists who were protesting Beijing's repatriation of North Korean defectors and its brutal crackdown on Tibetans. Many Seoul citizens were injured by the Chinese demonstrators, who wielded bamboo sticks and hurled stones at them.

   China has yet to offer a formal apology, saying that the clashes happened while students were making a "just move" to protect the torch.

   Sohn also criticized Lee for making an "unconditional concession" to Washington concerning the recently struck deal to fully open South Korea's market to U.S. beef and for bypassing an apology Seoul deserves from Japan concerning its brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.

   "Lee should stop embarrassing and disappointing his people, and renew his diplomatic policy with the right vision," he said.

   President Lee said at a recent summit that he would "let bygones be bygones" as his Japanese counterpart Yasuo Fukuda, called for mature ties with Tokyo based on pragmatic diplomacy.

   The Japanese government has apologized for atrocities committed against Koreans during the colonial rule, but occasional incidents -- including former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine -- fueled anger here. The shrine venerates Japanese war dead, including war criminals.

   Lee, a right-leaning former corporate chief executive, has been signaling drastic changes in South Korea's diplomatic policies that include a tougher stance toward North Korea and "practical" relations with other countries.

   Lee's two liberal predecessors -- Roh Moo-Hyun and Kim Dae-jung -- had taken a tougher position toward the U.S. and Japan, while conducting an engagement policy with the nuclear-armed North.

   hayney@yna.co.kr
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