The US-PRC-ROK Triangle: Managing the Future
January 04, 2004
This report was published in January 2004 by the Institute of Foreign
Affairs and National Security as part of a three-volume series entitled Coping with Korea's Security Challenges.
Different
perspectives on the North Korean nuclear issue have magnified other,
long-standing but growing strains in US-ROK relations to threaten the
durability of the alliance and potentially the strategic stability of
the Northeast Asian region. The virtual collapse of the 1994 Agreed
Framework has revealed fissures in US-ROK views about the nature of the
North Korean threat and the appropriate means for dealing with it. The
differences have been magnified by the growing sense of disharmony on
both sides of the alliance, though primarily in the ROK.
As best
one can tell, the "anti-American sentiment�Ethat has come more
forcefully to the surface in the past couple of years is not
representative of the majority view in Korea. And to the extent that it
does exist, there is evidence that it can be turned around, at least
for most Koreans. Still, it is significant, and the danger is that both
sides might ignore these problems on the theory that they are anomalous
and not representative of "true attitudes�Eon either side, or that
other factors might exacerbate them beyond the point of repair. Either
development would not only be risky but potentially fatal to the
alliance.
This relates to…
May 19, 2010
South Korea
April 20, 2010
East Asia
The East Asia program seeks to illuminate and fashion practical solutions to many of the complex security challenges confronting East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region today. Its
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