SEOUL, April 15 (UPI) -- As South Korea was gripped by the fever of parliamentary election that could reshape the country's relations with Washington, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Seoul on Thursday evening to discuss sensitive issues of North Korea and Iraq.
Upon arrival at a Seoul airport, Cheney was greeted by anti-American and pro-American demonstrations that made the Asian nation look sharply divided over ties with the United States, its decades-long security ally.
About 100 anti-U.S. activists gathered near the U.S. Embassy in central Seoul to protest Cheney's visit, which comes after stops in Japan and China. They shouted slogans accusing Washington of increasing tensions with its hard-line North Korea policy and pressing South Korea to send troops to war-torn Iraq.
"Cheney, who is only interested in expanding the dominance of the United States in Northeast Asia, came to South Korea only to announce the position of his nation," they said in a statement. They vowed to hold protests in front of a Seoul hotel where Cheney will stay until he leaves the country on Friday.
Not far away, some 400 pro-U.S. activists staged a rally near the headquarters of U.S. forces stationed in the country to welcome Cheney's visit and express support for Seoul's dispatch of troops to Iraq. They waved American and South Korean flags, chanting anti-North Korea slogans.
"We hope the visit by Vice President Cheney will serve as an occasion to strengthen friendship between the two nations that have been tied in blood," they said in a statement. "The South Korean government should reaffirm its position to back the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism," it said.
Cheney is scheduled to meet on Friday with Prime Minister Goh Kun, who is acting as South Korea's president during the country's presidential impeachment trial, and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon. Officials said talks would focus on Seoul's plan to dispatch troops to Iraq and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
South Korea has promised to send some 3,600 troops, half of them combatants, to help rebuild Iraq at the request of the United States. The deployment would make Seoul the biggest coalition partner after the United States and Britain.
But the commitment has been shaken by the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Opposition to dispatching troops is rapidly growing in the wake of the recent kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Iraq, including eight South Korean missionaries who were later released.
The incidents have raised concerns that South Korea may become a target of terrorist like Spain, where a series of train bombings killed nearly 200 people last month.
Cheney is expected to call for Seoul's firmer support for U.S.-led efforts to reconstruct Iraq despite recent intimidations.
South Korea has vowed to push ahead as planned with the troop dispatch, even if the situation deteriorates further in Iraq. "Speaking straightforwardly, there is no possibility of the purpose of the troop dispatch being changed," Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said in a recent press conference.
The troop deployment has been unpopular with the public, but President Roh Moo-hyun said sending soldiers would help win Washington's backing for a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis. The National Assembly, controlled by the conservative opposition, has approved the troop plan after weeks of debate.
But the troop dispatch will likely become a bone of contention again as the country's progressive parties won a sweeping victory in Thursday's elections over pro-U.S. conservatives. A majority of the incoming parliament calls for the government to scrap its troop dispatch or delay it until after the handover of authority from the U.S.-led coalition to the Iraqi government.
A more thorny issue is how to deal with North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions. Cheney has called for greater international pressure on Pyongyang to give up its drive for atomic weapons. He warned of the risk of a nuclear arms race in East Asia if international efforts fail to disarm North Korea.
Cheney, armed with new evidence of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons capabilities, is expected to urge South Korea to put more pressure on North Korea, which may trigger a row with Seoul, which is taking a softer stance with its communist neighbor.
Cheney, along with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, is known for his rock-hard stance against the North. Seoul officials hope to use Cheney's visit to push for its "three-stage plan" to end the nuclear crisis peacefully.
The proposal would start with North Korea pledging to dismantle its nuclear program in return for promises from the United States and the other parties of security and economic assistance. But U.S. officials believe that it will be difficult to move forward because of the North's stubborn stance.
Cheney is expected to use information gained from Abdul Qader Khan -- the father of Pakistan's nuclear programs -- about North Korea's atomic weapons, to call for Seoul's bigger role. Khan reportedly told interrogators that he was shown three nuclear devices at a secret underground plant when he visited North Korea five years ago.
But South Korean officials said it was too early to draw a conclusion about what Khan saw. Foreign Minister Ban said there was no change in South Korea's basic assessment that the North has only enough plutonium for one or two atomic bombs. He cited a lack of concrete evidence for Khan's claim.
But U.S. intelligence believes Pyongyang already has one or two nuclear weapons and the capability to produce more. Cheney said he was afraid North Korea could supply nuclear weapons technology to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
