South Korea said Wednesday it has yet to decide whether or how to promote ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), responding to a U.S. plan to bring South Korea closer to the military alliance.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Tuesday that his country will propose NATO partnerships with South Korea, Japan, Australia, Sweden and Finland.
He made it clear that the U.S. has no intention of asking the countries to formally join NATO, and their role will be limited to dialogue and joint training.
Burns said President George W. Bush will suggest the idea in the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, from Nov. 28-29.
South Korea, however, delivered a cautious response, saying it has not received any official request from either the U.S. or NATO.
"We will review our concrete position in case NATO officially proposes it after its international discussions," the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
South Korea has taken a prudent approach towards a role in such a U.S. security-related international body or campaign, apparently in consideration of relations with its communist neighbor North Korea.
Earlier this month, South Korea rejected a U.S. request to help its campaign, called the Proliferation Security Initiative, to interdict North Korean cargo suspected of containing weapons of mass destruction and related materials.
Diplomatic sources said closer ties between Seoul and NATO may unnerve China and Russia, which are not among the organization's 26 member nations.
Seoul, Nov. 22 (Yonhap News)
Seoul to review its relations with NATO |
