The last thing the administration wants is for the friends of North Korea, such as Selig Harrison whose March Task Force recommended a negotiating framework that would give the North all the leverage and the U.S. all the costs, to mediate the standoff. One particularly wrong-headed recommendation is to continue the missile test moratorium as a means of containing the North Korean rocket modernization. Unfortunately, the North simply ships its rocket engines and missiles to Iran where the testing is done, allowing Pyongyang to claim compliance with a testing moratorium as an example of its "goodwill."

It may be wishful thinking, but I believe China has the ability to help shape the future in the region in a positive way. For the U.S. to withdraw from the ROK, as proposed by Carpenter, might very well initiate not only another Korean War but also possibly another World War. When I lived in Seoul and attended Yonsei University in 1969-70, my Korean father and Yonsei professor, Hahm Pyong Choon, later to become Ambassador to the United States and national security adviser to the President of the Republic of Korea, told me there were always those who sought to purchase liberty and freedom on the cheap. At an embassy reception in Washington, he reminded me what he had told me in class: "Those on the left think you are imperialists; those on the right do not want to spend the money".

In 1985, the communists planted bombs in Burma where the ROK cabinet was meeting. Professor Hahm was killed by the very same North Korean communists whom wish to see the withdrawal of American forces from the region.  To save a few dollars, however unintentionally, we might end up the North Korean army in downtown Seoul.  Certainly, armed with nuclear weapons, the North will be difficult at best to deter from such an attack.  To the people of the Republic of Korea: America will not leave, we will not run, we will not forget the extraordinary sacrifices we both have made to secure the freedom of your country and ours. This is the basis for the Bush Administration's strategy, and with that sufficient reason it should be supported. 

 

Peter Huessy is President of GeoStrategic Analysis, a Maryland defense consulting firm. He is Senior Defense Associate at NDUF. He specializes in nuclear weapons, missile defense, terrorism and rogue states. These views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his affiliated organizations.