| bibo:abstract |
Envisaging Future of ROK-US Alliance
Yun, Duk-min
Professor, IFANS
December 2004
South Korea s strategic environs are undergoing a sea change, and Seoul needs a national strategy that reflects a transformed strategic environment. Its policy vision tends to be defined narrowly and from a short-term
perspective, for it resides on the Korean peninsula. Although this phenomenon can be blamed on the urgency of the North Korean nuclear problem, Seoul should quickly chart a long-term national strategy which identifies the national interest from a global perspective.
Seoul must formulate a grand national strategy or a new security policy to manage the rise of China and Japan, the reunification process, energy security, and unconventional security threats, all of which can have a fateful impact on South Korea s survival and prosperity. Another task for the Seoul government is how it can optimally take advantage of the ROK-US alliance in tackling these new challenges. The alliance with the United States, the world s sole superpower, should be weaved into South Korea s long-term national strategy as an asset Seoul must harness. The future of the ROK-US alliance should be considered within the parameters of a long-term national strategy.
During the ROK-US summit on May 14, 2003, President Roh Moo-hyun and President Bush agreed that the two countries shall make concerted efforts toward building a comprehensive and dynamic alliance to enhance the two peoples shared values of democracy, human rights, and market economy and for sustained peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia. Seoul and Washington need to promptly craft a vision for the transformation of the ROK¬US alliance into a new comprehensive alliance which reflects changes in the strategic environment over the past half a century. A comprehensive alliance will transcend the boundaries of a traditional military alliance that focuses solely on military security; it will extend to materializing the shared values of liberal democracy and market economy, cementing economic ties, advancing bilateral cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, countering asymmetric threats, to include terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the environment, and piracy, and promoting energy security.
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