The Bush administration's attention is focused on the Middle East, but the Korean peninsula also requires attention. The impending inauguration of conservative Lee Myung-bak, who won South Korea's presidential race in a landslide, provides an excellent opportunity to refashion the US-South Korean relationship.
President-elect Lee has promised to forge better relations than did the outgoing president, Roh Moo-hyun, who was not trusted by Washington. Mr Lee said he would 'do my best to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem through co-operation and a strengthened relationship with the United States'.
Moreover, Mr Lee intends to take a more realistic approach to North Korea. For instance, he is expected to address its human rights violations. Even more important, Mr Lee says he will include nuclear disarmament in the two Koreas' talks.
Although Mr Lee's views will receive a warm reception in Washington, he is not interested in a confrontation on the peninsula. He is no more likely to risk war - or support a US-policy that risks war - than the current government. Washington should incorporate a more aggressive stance by South Korea into its nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang.
Mr Lee's victory also provides an opportunity to transform Washington's ties with Seoul. South Koreans, whose fluctuating attitudes have increasingly inclined towards China and North Korea, and away from America, are growing less tolerant of Seoul's dependent status.
During US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates' November visit to Seoul, South Korean Defence Minister Kim Jang-soo said: 'We cannot say that the threat from North Korea has reduced tangibly or discernibly.' Yet, if the North is so dangerous, why has the South lavished aid, investment and commerce on Pyongyang? Why should the US underwrite blatant appeasement of a potential aggressor?
In any case, South Korea can defend itself. Its gross domestic product has been estimated to be as much as 40 times that of the North. The South has twice as many people, possesses a vast technological edge, and is friendly with far more countries - including all of the advanced industrial powers and long-time Pyongyang allies China and Russia. While North Korea retains a numerical military edge, its weapons are archaic and its forces ill-trained.