Why South Korea Must Chart an Independent Path on North Korea
Now might be the right time for Moon to decide if South Korea is a truly independent nation or not. Will the ROK forever transfer responsibility for its security to another nation which believes that many other objectives have priority?
However, the U.S. responds, in the future, South Koreans might end up celebrating that day as a second independence day. It would be long overdue for a nation long capable of defending itself and charting its own future.
Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World and co-author of The Korean Conundrum: America’s Troubled Relations with North and South Korea.