USFK Leaving South Korea Won’t Change North Korea
by Richardson ~ August 7th, 2006. Filed under: Engagement, U.S.-Korea Relations.From AP, N.Korea claims capture of U.S. submersible:
North Korea claimed it has captured an unmanned U.S. submersible and put it on display in Pyongyang, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Monday. The U.S. dismissed the report.
The small vessel was captured during a reconnaissance mission in waters off North Korea’s eastern city of Hamhung. . . [the report] was accompanied by a picture purported to be of the black torpedo-shaped U.S. vessel. There were no further details as to when or how North Korea obtained it.
A spokesman for the U.S. military in South Korea, David Oten, dismissed the report. “We have nothing unaccounted for and there is no way for us to verify that this is a U.S. vessel,” Oten said.
Manufactured threats such as this can be and are used by the North Korean regime create a false sense of external threat, which is in turn used to continue to justify the “military first” policy and internal cohesiveness. Even if USFK left the peninsula, the DPRK would use similar tactic and point to USFJ as the primary threat.
August 7th, 2006 at 11:40 am
I think the more interesting question is what the removal of USFK would do to the climate in _South_ Korea. Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but don’t you think it might force the South Korean political conversation into more, well, _grown-up_ directions?
August 7th, 2006 at 11:48 am
‘Grown up directions?’ No, I think it likely would precipitate an arms race, one that South Korea would have no hope of winning with conventional arms, which would push them to go nuclear. As I’m anti-proliferation, I’d say that’s a bad thing. I could also embolden China. A lot of potential bad things could happen that are currently (largely) prevented with USFK in-place.
August 7th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
just like NK forgot to provide a video of KJI’s 5 hole in one’s the first time he played golf, they won’t provide photos of this submarine.
i can’t wait till some euro that visits the USS Pueblo gets a pic of this submersible and publishes it.
August 8th, 2006 at 2:38 am
A question is: would removing USFK lower the chance NK would strike out at Japan if it made a move South?
How likely is it it would strike at Japan and US forces in Japan if it made a move on South Korea with USFK in country?
I would guess wildly - pretty likely.
What would removing USFK do for that? Would it lower NK’s interest in striking Japan?