The Future of South Korean-U.S. Security Relations by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000229790
Goodreads: 51581604
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Implications for ROK-U.S. Security Relations

How will these trends affect Korean-U·S. security relations in the 1990s? Gearly, they promise a bright future for Korea’s national interest and security. As a bridge between capitalism and communism, Korea has looked beyond ideology to foster direct trade with Communist countries such as China, the Soviet Union, and the East European nations. The ROK government formally announced that Korea will not oppose exchanges conducted by any country with the North, one of a number of very rapid changes. Korean firms may now regard the Communist world, and even the North, as new potential markets.

At the very time when the U.S. government is pressing globally for more democracy, human rights, reliance on the free market mechanism, and improved working conditions for labor, the Korean government is moving in all these directions. The philosophical propinquity of the two countries has never been greater.

First, the United States withholds most-favored-nation treatment from countries that do not guarantee the rights of labor to organize and strike and that have not ended the exploitation of workers. Of course, if this criteria had been applied to Korea’s exports to the United States in the past, serious conflict would have resulted. But the newly installed political system has contributed to the improvement of labor-management relations and labor’s welfare. Therefore, human rights have not been of grave consequence in issues of Korea’s merchandise exports.

Second, because a demand to develop political democracy has been demonstrated as the consensus among the Koreans over the past two years, the U.S. emphasis on greater democracy will not be a barrier in ROK-U.S. relations.

Third, Korea is clearly meeting the free market system criterion. During his visit to the Soviet Union, President Reagan told students at Moscow University that entrepreneurs and small businesses are responsible for most economic growth in the United States. He also singled out Korea as a shining example of what private enterprises can achieve. The confluence of Korean and U.S. policies on this issue bodes well for ROK-U.S. relations.

I return to my observation that we live in a dynamic world of rapid change. For example, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic today conduct their relationship in a constructive spirit that would have been anathema to Konrad Adenauer and Walter Ulbricht a mere generation ago. Why should Koreans not emulate this example? The dimunition of Chinese, Soviet, Japanese, and U.S. influence will leave the resolution of regional dissent to direct negotiations between North and South Korea. Koreans are out of contact with virtually the entire world, except for their brothers to the north. This should change. But the success of such a dialogue will depend upon the kind of continued strong economic performance by Korea that I feel is likely to occur.

Many years ago, a Peace Corps volunteer was teaching English in a junior high school in rural Korea. The principal often showed up at the school at ten or eleven in the morning, heavily under the influence of alcohol. The American told

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