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Officials here described the visit by Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan as marking the new government's "first stride toward upgrading the alliance" with the United States, which was damaged during the previous left-leaning administration.
President Lee Myung-bak's diplomatic team has been working out a "future vision for the alliance" between the two counties, in a major project to carry out his pledge to build stronger ties with the United States.
Details of the alliance blueprint will be discussed during Yu's five-day trip to the United States. A diplomatic source said the alliance could be expanded beyond the Korean peninsula to tackle global issues, such as anti-terrorism and the spread of democracy.
The alliance vision may be announced when Lee gets together with U.S. President George W. Bush for summit talks at Camp David April 18-19. Lee will be the first South Korean leader to be invited to Camp David, a presidential retreat in Maryland, reflecting warming bilateral ties following Lee's inauguration a month ago.
The Foreign Ministry said the foremost goal for Yu's trip is "preparing for a successful South Korea-U.S. summit." "There is a need to fine-tune details for the South Korea-U.S. summit," Yu told reporters before leaving for Washington.
The alliance overture was boosted as a group of veterans and conservative civic groups called for stronger military ties with the United States to deter security threats from North Korea. "The South Korea-U.S. alliance is the best means to deter a war on the Korean peninsula," the group said in a joint statement.
As a way to bolster bilateral ties, Yu plans to discuss a free trade deal which has yet to be ratified by legislatures in Seoul and Washington, during Wednesday's meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. South Korea and the United States signed the free trade accord in June after 10 months of negotiations but still await ratification, with strong opposition from both the South Korean and U.S. Congress.
U.S. lawmakers have threatened to block the deal, the biggest for the United States since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, unless South Korea fully lifts the ban on U.S. beef imports. U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow has warned of "negative consequences" for Seoul-Washington ties if they fail to ratify the free trade deal. But if approved, the free trade pact would be billed as the most significant event in South Korean-U.S. relations since the two nations signed their military accord in 1953.
The South Korean diplomatic chief also said he would discuss with Rice over how to revive the stalled process to disarm North Korea.
"I plan to have consultations on various ways to resume the six-way (nuclear) talks at an early date, in consideration of both the U.S. domestic political situation, such as the presidential election, and the geopolitical conditions in the region," Yu said,
Three months have passed since North Korea missed an end-of-2007 deadline to give a complete accounting of its nuclear programs as called for in a major six-nation nuclear deal reached in February, 2007.
But the six-party talks on dismantling the North's atomic programs, which involve the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia, still remain deadlocked due to lingering suspicions about North Korea's uranium-based weapons program and nuclear proliferation to Syria.
Yu, who traveled to Beijing last week to woo China's influence on North Korea, called for Pyongyang to move quickly, warning time was running short ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
"Looking at the schedule of U.S. domestic politics, (Washington) would virtually take its hands off the issue once the vacation season starts in early August," he said. The United States will hold its presidential election in November and its next president will take office in January 2009.
"A complete and correct declaration (of the North's nuclear programs) is a key to moving to the next stage," he said.
Yu plans to meet Defense Secretary Robert Gates and White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley before returning home on Saturday.
