이명박 정부의 안보정책: 기본과제와 제언

Abstract

While it is true that Korean society has faced a national division —the so-called “security for peace” versus “peace for security”— with respect to inter-Korean relations, the issues related to national security and defense should not be subject to ideological debate. Rather, they should stand on the objective realities confronting us today. In order to do this, it is imperative to devise and develop major policy alternatives based on sound judgments and decision-makings that are reflective of the changing threat environment. There is little doubt that our national security environment has continuously deteriorated substantially for the past ten years. In particular, despite the nuclear test of North Korea in October 2006, the Roh Moo-hyun administration dared to push toward the dismantlement of the ROK-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) by April 17, 2012. The leftist-leaning trend widespread across the political, social and cultural spectrum in our society also represents a serious challenge and impediment to national unity and security. It would not be too much to say that the difficulties in security we confront today is the result of a mistaken appeasement policy toward North Korea taken by the Kim and Roh administrations for the past ten years, during which security and defense policies were subjugated to the appeasement policy. In light of the above trend, I would like to suggest that, first and foremost, the Lee Myung-bak administration needs to place its topmost concern on the restoration of the security environments seriously deteriorated during the last decade, while turning the current state of national division into one of consensus whenever it comes to the issues of national security and defense. For its part, the Lee administration must respond to the wishes of the electorate who supported and approved him in last year’s presidential election. Meanwhile, this will also pave the way for domestic and international atmospheres in which President Lee’s principal concerns will come to realization, particularly with regard to a completely denuclearized North Korea and a future-oriented ROK-U.S. strategic alliance during his presidency.