WASHINGTON -- With South Korea's critical presidential election decided, the Bush administration's Korea policy is in need of a midcourse correction.
Our five-decade old alliance relationship with South Korea is at a low ebb, with anti-Americanism rising. At the same time, the confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear-weapons program is mounting. All of this is happening as the United States confronts a recalcitrant Iraq.
This dangerously volatile situation, unless properly handled by the United States, threatens to plunge Northeast Asia into a new era of instability, dangerously undermining American influence in a region critical to our national security.