Reinforcing the seven-decade alliance

Kim Hee-sang
The author is chairman of the Korea Institute for National Security Affairs.

July 27 is the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, and Aug. 8 is the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korea-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty. Now, both Korea and the United States welcome the Korea-U.S. alliance, but the atmosphere at the time of the armistice negotiations was completely different.

The United States was trying to get away because it was afraid of being dragged into the war again. Confronting the U.S., President Syngman Rhee opposed a ceasefire and advocated free unification. As the armistice treaty was stalled due to the exchange of POWs, Rhee used brinkmanship to release anti-communist prisoners and barely achieved the Korea-U.S. alliance. The United States was perplexed and considered “Plan Eveready” to oust Rhee.

I am reminded of the recollection of then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Paik Sun-yup. “One day, at a Gyeonghoeru party, Rhee said he himself would handle Gen. Won Yong-deok [commander of the military police]. I was puzzled. At 2 a.m. on the day of releasing the anti-communist POWs, I got a protest call from furious Commander Eugene Clark, who was on a business trip to Tokyo. I had Rhee woken and debriefed. Rhee said, ‘Tell him I did it. Without an alliance, a ceasefire must not happen.’ At that moment, his heart and faith brought tears to my eyes.” Simply put, the alliance would not have been possible without Rhee.

The Korea-U.S. alliance was a revolutionary measure that broke the geopolitical fate of the Korean Peninsula and changed the fate of Koreans along with the Republic of Korea, a liberal democratic republic, established with Rhee’s firm belief and special experience. I call it a “revolutionary measure” because by bringing in the United States as an ally, South Korea could attain stable development despite constant provocations by North Korea, and Korea could accomplish the miracle on the Han by using Korean people’s long suppressed energy in the new world order of U.S.-led liberal democracy and market economy after breaking from the China-led international order that had Korea in a bind.

An alliance is a mutually supportive relationship to cope with common threats among the parties that share ideology and values. We have joined hands with Uncle Sam not only in the Vietnam War but also in Iraq and Afghanistan to form the alliance that is considered to be the most successful in history. But the Moon Jae-in administration’s distancing from the United States, its anti-Japanese and friendly-with-China policy, as well as its pro-North Korea stance seriously hurt the Korea-U.S. alliance. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his memoir “A Sacred Oath” that the Trump administration considered the withdrawal of the U.S. forces after the Moon administration ignored the deployment of the U.S.-led Thaad anti-missile system in South Korea and rushing to retrieve the wartime operational control from the United States.

An alliance — especially a military alliance — is a special relationship in which its function can be revived only when there is deep friendship and trust. But despite the need for a further investigation, the Moon administration apparently delayed the environmental impact assessment just because China does not like the Thaad deployment, which is needed to protect the USFK from North Korean nuclear missiles.

The transfer of wartime operational control would have been a bigger shock for the United States. If the operational control is handed over to South Korea following the transfer of the peacetime operational control in 1994, the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command — a key link uniting the two countries and embodying the purpose of the alliance — will disband automatically. Then, it will inevitably lead to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea and the collapse of the Korea-U.S. alliance. That’s why there were rumors during the U.S. presidential election that America and China made a big deal to have China be in charge of dismantling the North Korean nuclear program in exchange for withdrawing the USFK.

I was relieved to see the “freedom, freedom again” be shouted to “world citizens” by President Yoon Suk Yeol in his inauguration ceremony last year. I was also quite relieved to see the shaken Korea-U.S. alliance be swiftly reorganized, the Korea-Japan relationship be corrected, and the alliance be expanded to NATO and the rest of the free world. But in the rapidly changing international security environment, I still have high expectations for the Korea-U.S. alliance to cope with imminent threats and hopes for free reunification. This is why we must manage the Korea-U.S. alliance better for the 70th anniversary.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.