Obama Pressuring South Korea for help for Afghanistan: Russia stays on sidelines.

Obama is expected to press South Korean President Lee Myung-Baek during his visit to the United States in June to continue deploying South Korean troops to Afghanistan, the centerpiece of the new administration’s security policies. That puts South Korea in a tight pincer as North Korea continues to threaten it over any cooperation.

It was just disclosed that North Korea’s increasingly belligerent Kim Jong-Il regime executed a key official who had pushed for reconciliation with South Korea. That man was Choe Sung-Chol, who served as the high-profile point man on South Korea as vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

South Korea’s government announced on May 6 it would expand aid to Afghanistan but deferred a decision on the issue of redeploying troops there.

Although Obama has made additional non-U.S. troops a key tenet of his major program now described as an effort to stabilize the war-torn country is meeting with little success..

Obama made the request for troops to Lee within the past several weeks in a letter that stated if troops were too politically difficult, Lee could send money instead.

South Korea pulled its 210 troops out of Afghanistan in 2007 and don’t expect more troops now..

The United States is sending 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan as part of an adapted Bush-like  troop surge that succeeded in Iraq. The U.S. has initiated a major diplomatic program to win support from NATO and Asian allies to add more foreign troops to the coalition as part of the surge.

Most think the success or failure of Pakistan’s war against the Taliban and al Qaeda there will greatly effect neighboring Afghanistan. The wildcard is Russia so far Putin has remained benign despite the U.S.’s decisive if covert role in defeating the then Soviet army there.