ROK-US Relations after the Summit: Toward a Strategic Alliance in the 21st Century

Abstract

This paper discusses (a) backgrounds of the ROK-US conflict during the last 10 years; (b) results of the ROK-US summit meeting between President Lee and President Bush on April 19, 2008; and (c) pending issues the two governments should resolve in the future for a strategic alliance in the 21st century. South Korea and the US experienced difficult times for the past 10 years due largely to anti-American sentiment in the South and different views towards North Korea between the two presidents of both South Korea and the US and different approaches and policies toward North Korea, especially in dealing with North Korean nuclear issues. The US planned to reduce the USFK to maintain 25,000 by the end of 2008, and agreed to transfer the OPCON to the South Korean military authority. Many South Koreans, mainly among conservatives, worried these as weakening of the blood-bonded alliance. President Lee Myung-Bak, elected with absolute majority at the last presidential election in December 2007, was supported by conservative South Koreans and promised to restore and strengthen the ROK-US alliance. The ROK-US summit meeting on April 19 was significant by dispelling 10 years of discord between the two countries and founding a basis for a strategic alliance in the 21st century. The two presidents agreed: (a) to expand the ROK-US alliance into a strategic alliance, (b) to strengthen consultation and cooperation in dealing with the North Korean nuclear issues, (c) to stop reduction of the USFK, and (d) to make every effort to ratify the ROK-US FTA. However, in order to become a true strategic alliance, the two countries must resolve such issues as the North Korean nuclear problem, the transfer of OPCON, the ROK-US FTA, PSI, MD, troop dispatches to Iraq and Afghanistan, and so on, through close consultation and cooperation.