Seoul and Washington should finish the "comprehensive transformation," of their alliance by 2015 and build a "complex alliance," the East Asia Institute said in a report released yesterday in which 19 experts, including Kim Kyung-won, the former Korean ambassador to Washington, weighed in. The report was prepared over a two-year period.
The Seoul-based think tank suggested the new alliance would broaden the scope of activity by the two countries, encompassing regions around the Korean Peninsula, but the basis for it would still be the defense of the peninsula.
The report also touched on the transfer of wartime control of South Korean troops, currently held by the top commander of U.S. forces stationed in Korea. Seoul is negotiating the transfer with Washington, which has basically agreed to the change.
"There should be careful consideration whether the complete parallel cooperative system between Japan and the United States is realistically feasible for the Korean Peninsula," the report said. "In ordinary times, a parallel cooperative system should be employed, but in the case of war, a measure needs to be devised that optimizes the combined operational capabilities."
The think tank further pointed out that an alliance between the two sides should no longer be based on Cold War ideology.
"To ask the United States to acknowledge the Korean Peninsula as an area excluded from military changes and to maintain the existing Cold War-based alliance is not persuasive," read the report. “A country's strategic value is determined by how deeply it is embedded in the United States' security network. If South Korea persists on a Cold War alliance based on large-scale force maintenance on the peninsula, South Korea's strategic value will diminish."
The report pointed out that rather than the size of the U.S. force stationed here, the quality of the troops mattered more.
The institute stressed that in order to have a successful road map to form a new alliance between the two countries, a strategic vision is needed, otherwise negotiations without one would only result in misunderstandings.
Mutual trust between Seoul and Washington is a starting point for the two sides to draw up a road map, the report also said.
The transformation of the Korea-U.S. alliance is part of a general trend, as Washington tries to transform its troops into a more mobile force around the globe, the report continued. Such a movement requires a fundamental change in the nature of the alliance.
Washington is looking for an ally that can not only provide a base for its troops, but in some cases conduct joint operations.
The U.S. military bases on the Korean Peninsula should also build the capacity to host an influx of military forces in case of a war here or for the deployment of forces abroad, the report said.