Op-Ed Contributors

Debate: US-ROK drill

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-26 08:27

Kim Jin-Young

Draw ROK, DPRK to talks table

The US-ROK joint military drill, the biggest ever, around the Korean Peninsula has raised China's concerns and made it warn that it could heighten tensions in the region.

Tensions intensified on the peninsula because of an issue between the two Koreas: Cheonan, a corvette of the Republic of Korea (ROK), sank in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) near the inter-Korean border in a torpedo attack, which the ROK said was the result of a secret maneuver of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). But, as always, a Korean Peninsula security issue is not just a matter between the two Koreas, but an international issue with which global powers, US and China, most conspicuously, and Japan and Russia are involved.

Sixty years have passed since the Korean War broke out. Things have changed dramatically since then, just like an old saying (from a P.B. Shelley poem), naught may endure but mutability.

But suddenly it's dj vu all over again - the present times remind of the times of the Korean War. Have things not changed then, or have they gone backward? If we are living in the times of 60 years ago, we have to wake up and "go back to the future". It's time to think about what we have reaped so far and how to get out of the Cheonan quagmire.

Who is the first winner in the Cheonan incident? The answer is the US.

The US has made two important gains from the Cheonan incident. Taking advantage of the ROK government's resentment against the DPRK and disappointment with the way China has dealt with the issue, the US has got the opportunity to show off its state-of-the-art naval armament in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) and demonstrate to the world, especially China and the DPRK, its willingness to protect its precious Asian ally. Plus, it made former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama concede to its demand of maintaining the American air-force base in Okinawa, because of the seemingly heightened security threat from the DPRK.

The US had been angry with its faithful Asian ally, Japan, after its former prime minister vowed to shift the US air-force base in Futenma out of Okinawa. The US realized that any such move could weaken its military power in the Asia-Pacific region and feared that its old ally was trying to change its submissive ways.

In such circumstances occurred the tragic incident of Cheonan, providing a valuable opportunity to the US to recharge the security alignment in East Asia. The long-drawn Futenma air-force base issue, which was like a fish-bone stuck in America's throat, was thus solved in one stroke.

The massive joint military exercise will help not only to massage the depressed heart of the ROK government, which was not satisfied with the "compromised" UN Security Council statement denouncing the attack without putting the blame on the DPRK, but also to confirm the necessity of the US military existence in East Asia. It will help the US show its readiness to defend the ROK, too, just like it sees China doing with the DPRK.

What has the ROK government won?

The conservative hardliner ROK government has won the steadfast support of the US government for its hawkish policy.

Late ROK president Roh Moo-hyun was dovish toward the DPRK and professed a nationalistic slogan, and his relationship with the George W. Bush administration was, not surprisingly, awkward and often discordant. Now the conservative ROK government has earned the honeymoon with the US it had been longing for. It must amuse conservatives in both the countries. But the cost will be too expensive for the ROK.

Why?

Let us think about what has been lost and may be lost. The ROK has lost the communication channel with the DPRK and the bud of political confidence that was sprouting with China. Most of the official communication channels with the DPRK have been shut under the Lee Myung-bak government and the 10-year achievements in the relationship with the DPRK seem to have led nowhere. We have to remember, too, that China is the ROK's biggest trade partner and a good relationship with Beijing is Seoul's precious diplomatic asset that should not be dumped. It's time to recover what has been lost.

So, what can China and US do?

The two countries fought in the Korean War 60 years ago. But now they are strategic partners and responsible for global issues.

Their common interest today is peace on the Korean Peninsula. They need to sit down and find a way out of the quagmire.

Persuading (or urging) the DPRK and the ROK to come to a negotiation table and collaborate would be a more realistic strategy.

The author is professor at the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy of Pusan National University, the ROK.

(China Daily 07/26/2010 page9)