This article sent to me via a reader tip is a couple of months old, but it is yet another example of what the Moon administration really want to do with the US-ROK alliance even though officially they will say something different:
Chung In Moon, a special adviser to President Moon Jae In for foreign affairs and national security
A top adviser to South Korea’s president says he would eventually like to see the U.S.–South Korea alliance end. In language that sounded almost Trump-like, Chung In Moon, a special adviser to President Moon Jae In for foreign affairs and national security, said in an interview that alliances in general are a “very unnatural state of international relations” and said that, “for me, the best thing is to really get rid of alliance.” In the meantime, he says, he “strongly” supports “the continued presence of American forces” in Korea, despite hoping for an arrangement that he thinks would better serve his nation’s interests.
It was a remarkable statement coming from a South Korean official who is playing a prominent advisory role in current negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program. South Korea has relied on its U.S. alliance since the 1950s to deter threats from its north—and the fate of that partnership, which North Korea has long sought to end, has been a contentious question as a summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump approaches. U.S. and South Korean officials have repeatedly insisted that the alliance is not a bargaining chip with North Korea. And Moon, who presented his ideas as his personal views, was discussing the future of the alliance as a theoretical question about Asia’s security architecture, not as a matter to be determined in nuclear talks. But his comments nevertheless suggested that if those talks succeed and overhaul geopolitics on the Korean peninsula, the alliance could come due for a reckoning. [The Atlantic]
You can read much more at the link, but President Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down. If he advocated openly for a USFK withdrawal that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.
However, if a peace treaty is signed to end the Korean War do not be surprised if the Moon administration allows left wing groups begin to put pressure on the US to withdraw. Think of it as a macro version of the current THAAD issue. The left wing groups have protested and sealed off the THAAD site making life difficult for the soldiers there. The Korean government could easily end the blockade, but choose not to. What if in the future if these groups are allowed to blockade and make life difficult for US personnel at for example Camp Humphreys?
President Moon will say all the right things that he supports USFK, just like he supposedly supports the THAAD site, but will set conditions to make it difficult for its continued existence.
Sorry Moon Pie, you and your moonies can’t have it both ways, end the alliance and keep the troops. We should ask them to think deeply about what would happen if the US packed up her toys and came home, telling the UN to lift ALL the sanctions off of the Norks. The red star will be flying over the Blue House in no time, and Moon Pie and his moonies will find out how real the gulags are.
J6Junkie
6 years ago
He’s the REAL Commie Moon. The Commie Choi Soon sil pulling the strings on the presidency.
AppeasingNorthKorea
6 years ago
Look, most South Koreans will never support this view. That’s why the Moon and his cronies are too afraid to come forth with their real plans in public. Look for this South Korean government do everything they can to undermine the US-ROK alliance as they’re doing now. But if the US doesn’t give into North Korea soon, the South Korean leftist cronies will abandon the wait and see approach in regards to the US. They will then actively try harder to undermine the alliance and try much harder to bring about anti-US feelings to prepare the way and to give an excuse for the alliance to end.
What the US can do… they need to directly appeal to the people of South Korea who have been hoodwinked by this government and the media that are controlled by this government. The people are still solidly behind the US, for now (until the South Korean left restarts their campaign of anti-US propaganda).
The US needs to cooperate more with the Conservative South Koreans by talking and communicating with them. With the cooperation, the allied forces need to go on the public offensive to put the left back into their places, on defensive heels. If the US threatens openly to withdraw from South Korea, that’s going to negatively affect the stock market, the currency, and the economy. This will, in turn, give a surge of strength to the much weakened South Korean Conservatives who will have a field day bashing the Left, while picking up the valuable public support. Most South Koreans will pick their economy, their jobs, and their livelihoods, over the Moon Jae-in’s Juche ideology of uniting with a despotic regime in North Korea.
@AppeasingNorthKorea, the US has been through this before during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. You are right that at some point the leftists will appeal to anti-Americanism if the Trump administration does not drop the sanctions. In 2004 then SecDef Rumsfeld threatened to withdraw troops and then actually did it pulling out 2nd BDE. That was a huge wake up call and the Roh Moo-hyun administration quickly starting policing up the anti-Americanism back then.
A dynamic that is different this time though is that President Trump may actually use this as an opportunity to remove US troops from Korea if the ROK does not pay more for their upkeep as he has been demanding.
2ID Doc
6 years ago
Did anyone else get a briefing where they were told by 2000 the ROK would defend itself, with troops close by if they needed us? It seems in 1989 that was the gist of the we are not an occupying force we are guests and the ROK will take care of itself soon Inbrief. I might be wrong that first week at the Turtle Farm was a sleep deprived blur.
Flyingsword
6 years ago
Apparently South Koreans do support this, they elected commie moon. Time for the US to depart
Sorry Moon Pie, you and your moonies can’t have it both ways, end the alliance and keep the troops. We should ask them to think deeply about what would happen if the US packed up her toys and came home, telling the UN to lift ALL the sanctions off of the Norks. The red star will be flying over the Blue House in no time, and Moon Pie and his moonies will find out how real the gulags are.
He’s the REAL Commie Moon. The Commie Choi Soon sil pulling the strings on the presidency.
Look, most South Koreans will never support this view. That’s why the Moon and his cronies are too afraid to come forth with their real plans in public. Look for this South Korean government do everything they can to undermine the US-ROK alliance as they’re doing now. But if the US doesn’t give into North Korea soon, the South Korean leftist cronies will abandon the wait and see approach in regards to the US. They will then actively try harder to undermine the alliance and try much harder to bring about anti-US feelings to prepare the way and to give an excuse for the alliance to end.
What the US can do… they need to directly appeal to the people of South Korea who have been hoodwinked by this government and the media that are controlled by this government. The people are still solidly behind the US, for now (until the South Korean left restarts their campaign of anti-US propaganda).
The US needs to cooperate more with the Conservative South Koreans by talking and communicating with them. With the cooperation, the allied forces need to go on the public offensive to put the left back into their places, on defensive heels. If the US threatens openly to withdraw from South Korea, that’s going to negatively affect the stock market, the currency, and the economy. This will, in turn, give a surge of strength to the much weakened South Korean Conservatives who will have a field day bashing the Left, while picking up the valuable public support. Most South Koreans will pick their economy, their jobs, and their livelihoods, over the Moon Jae-in’s Juche ideology of uniting with a despotic regime in North Korea.
@AppeasingNorthKorea, the US has been through this before during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. You are right that at some point the leftists will appeal to anti-Americanism if the Trump administration does not drop the sanctions. In 2004 then SecDef Rumsfeld threatened to withdraw troops and then actually did it pulling out 2nd BDE. That was a huge wake up call and the Roh Moo-hyun administration quickly starting policing up the anti-Americanism back then.
A dynamic that is different this time though is that President Trump may actually use this as an opportunity to remove US troops from Korea if the ROK does not pay more for their upkeep as he has been demanding.
Did anyone else get a briefing where they were told by 2000 the ROK would defend itself, with troops close by if they needed us? It seems in 1989 that was the gist of the we are not an occupying force we are guests and the ROK will take care of itself soon Inbrief. I might be wrong that first week at the Turtle Farm was a sleep deprived blur.
Apparently South Koreans do support this, they elected commie moon. Time for the US to depart
Uni by Christmas?