PROFESSOR VICTOR CHA SLOTTED FOR NSC POSITION

HatTip to Mingi. I don't think the Roh Administration is happy about this appointment, but this is a good move by the Bush Administration.

Victor Cha Expected to Become Asia Director in U.S. National Security Council
THE CHOSUN ILBO

WASHINGTON -- It has been learned that Korean-American Professor Victor Cha will be appointed Asia Director of the National Security Council in U.S. President George W. Bush's second term. Succeeding incumbent senior director Michael Green, Prof. Cha, 43, will constitute America's Asia policy line, taking charge of the Korean Peninsula and Japan, along with Stephen J. Hadley, National Security Advisor-designate.

Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Cha will become the first Korean-American assuming the highest U.S. government post that could affect Korean-American relationship profoundly. Harold Koh, dean, Law College, Yale University, served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor under the Clinton administration, but was not directly involved in Korean Peninsula policy.

Prof. Cha, a Korea and security expert, drew attention in 2002 when he introduced the concept of "hawk engagement" calling on the U.S. administration to intervene and resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. He has supported Bush's policy of not compensating North Korea, which has breached its promises in the international community. Along the context of the Bush administration's Asia policy, he asserted that the U.S. should maintain friendly relations with China and Japan in Asia, resolve Pyongyang's nuclear issue through the six-party talks, and utilize multilateral forums like APEC and ASEAN as a debate arena on security matters.

Prof. Cha has maintained a friendship with Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, then academic affairs dean of Stanford University, when he was a researcher at the university's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). Associating with foreign policy and security officials of the Bush administration
like Green and outgoing Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Cha has provided advice to the administration from the outside.

On the current Korea-U.S. relationship, Prof. Cha has asserted, "Though the two countries have had some discord, it is outcome rather than processes that is evaluated." Korea's support in Afghanistan and Iraq and successful conclusion of negotiations on re-alignment and reduction of U.S. forces in Korea are results that show Korea-U.S. relations will strengthen in the future, he assesses.

Born in New York, Cha majored in political science at Columbia University, earned a masters degree at Oxford University in the U.K., and earned a doctorate in political science from Columbia University.