CIAO DATE: 01/04

South Korea Must Play Bigger Role In Defense

William M. Drennan and James J. Przystup

The PacNet Newsletter 2003
November 3, 2003

The Center for Strategic and International Studies

 

Abstract

Fifty years ago, the United States and South Korea signed a mutual defense treaty designed to meet the "common danger" posed by North Korea to the survival of the South and to vital U.S. interests. The golden anniversary should be cause for celebration, but hold the applause. The alliance is in serious trouble, and possibly terminal decline, unless urgent steps are taken to revitalize it.

By any objective standard, the alliance has been a huge success. It has deterred North Korea from further large-scale aggression while creating an environment in which the South Korean people have built the world's 12th largest economy and transformed authoritarian rule into vibrant democracy. The problem today is not that the alliance has outlived its purpose—with its nuclear weapons and missile programs North Korea has only grown more dangerous—but rather the U.S. and South Korea no longer agree on the "common danger."

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