HONOLULU -- A drive to compel the United States to withdraw its military forces from South Korea is picking up steam with a curious alignment of advocates from the left and the right.
This drive complicates U.S. President George W. Bush's efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons and to engage in valid negotiations on a wide range of issues. "I believe this is not a military showdown," the president said in Texas last week. "This is a diplomatic showdown."
On the left, the leader in the drive is North Korea, of course, with almost daily demands from its propaganda machine that the "Yankee go home." Support for a withdrawal comes from an increasingly broad spectrum of South Koreans, including the middle class that sees continued South Korean reliance on the U.S. for defense as insulting to national sovereignty.