[Editorial] Is the U.S.’ Self-Assertiveness a Future for Korea-U.S. Alliance?

A strange mood dominated the Korea-U.S. negotiations over the future of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) as the U.S. notified Korea of its pullout plans for a portion of the USFK and the ninth round of the Future of the Alliance Policy Initiative Talks (FOTA) ended inconclusively. It appears increasingly unlikely that the issue over the USFK, the cornerstone of the Korea-U.S. alliance, would be addressed smoothly.

Most of all, the way the U.S. led the talks is more than unusual. At the FOTA, it demanded more land in Osan and Pyongtaek, where it will move the USFK base in Seoul. It does not make little sense when the U.S. said it would cut the U.S. military personnel in Korea by one-third while it demanded more land for its new base site. And this was why the FOTA broke down. It paled the title of the talk, the future of the alliance policy initiative.

The way the U.S. broke the news of its troop cuts in Korea with us did not fit in with the 50-year history of the two countries’ alliance. Last week, when the two countries’ ministers met, there was no reference to the issue at all. When the U.S. notified Korea of the cuts two days later, it was hardly considerate. “We may change the timeframe of the reductions after taking Korea’s opinion into consideration,” a U.S. senior official said. However, the reason why the U.S. does not disclose the detail of the reduction plans, which has reportedly been worked out, is suspicious.

The USFK is the major axis in a deterrent against North Korea. The Korean government has little option but to perform complicated political calculations. It has to worry about ways to earn time and bake budgets to fill the security vacuum left by reductions in the USFK. It cannot just overlook public opinion claiming that the size of the USFK bases should be reduced as the number of its troops will shrink. An ally should understand the concerns of its ally.

Since the USFK exists in the common interest of Korea and the U.S., the scale and timing of the cuts will affect the two countries’ relations. If the U.S. ignores the circumstances in which Korea is in, the two countries’ relations will slide from conflict into distrust.