South Korea: An indispensable ally

OPINION:

South Korea’s allied relationship with the U.S. since the July 27, 1953, Korean Armistice Agreement has brought peace and stability to the Korean Peninsula and to Northeast Asia.

North Korea’s invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950, was the beginning of a post-World War II Cold War. The Korean War was a bloody war, with over 37,000 Americans killed and 92,000 wounded and over one and a half million South Koreans killed or wounded. The armistice brought an end to the fighting, but not to the open hostility from North Korea.

Over the years, South Korea has been attacked and threatened by North Korea on multiple occasions: The Jan. ,21, 1968 North Korean commando raid on the Blue House to assassinate President Park Chung-hee; the 1983 bombing in Rangoon, Burma to assassinate visiting President Chun Doo-hwan; the 1987 North Korean bombing of Korean Airlines Flight 858, killing 115 passengers and crew; and the March 2010 North Korean attack on the South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, that killed 46 sailors. These are just some of the provocations from a hostile North Korea.

Despite 72 years of a tense and threatening relationship with North Korea, South Korea has become a highly developed liberal democracy, with the world’s tenth-largest GDP. Indeed, South Korea the miracle of the Han River is a model for all countries that care for their people and pursue socio-economic and rule of law policies that benefit the people, not the ruling elite.

Since the Korean War, the U. S. allied relationship with South Korea forged in the blood of Americans and South Koreans who fought for South Korea’s independence is unique, with over 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and extended nuclear deterrent commitments from the U.S, to our South Korean and Japanese allies. Indeed, it is the 1953 Mutual Defense Treaty with South Korea that effectively provides for security and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region.

The U.S. is South Korea’s second largest trading partner, with two-way trade in 2024 exceeding $197 billion. Since the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea was established in 2012, two-way trade has increased, and the overall trade relationship has become truly dynamic. South Korea exports mobile phones, semiconductors, automobiles, music and cinema to the U.S., with the U.S. providing South Korea with oil and gas, chemicals, machinery and transportation equipment. The per capita income in South Korea $34,640 according to the World Economic Forum is one of the highest in East Asia. South Korea’s transition from a low-income country in the 1960s and 1970s to a high-income country in a relatively short period of time speaks to their hard working and innovative workforce.Since the June Democratic Struggle of 1987 that ended authoritarian rule in South Korea and established a democratic system of governance, with emphasis on the rule of law, South Korea has developed into a vibrant and dynamic democracy an aspirational model for the people in a growing number of autocracies that care less about their own people.

The story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning South Korea’s cultural impact on the global community. Their pop culture, with K-Pop, K-Drama and K-Beauty is now a global phenomenon, as is their cuisine, from kimchi to bibimbap. South Korea is not only developing into a model democracy with a dynamic economy and high standard of living for its people; it’s also a country whose culture is positively influencing others.

The armistice that ended the Korea War in 1953 halted the fighting, but not the enmity North Korea has toward South Korea and the U.S. In 2023, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un memorialized in its constitution that South Korea and the U.S. are the enemies and that North Korea will build more nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them.

North Korea’s new mutual defense treaty with Russia, and the North Korean troops they sent to the Kursk region of Russia to participate in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, is a stark reminder that the new mutual defense treaty between Russia and North Korea commits each to come to the aid of the other in times of conflict. This theoretically could result in Russia coming to the aid of North Korea if there is conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

The United States’ allied relationship with South Korea continues to bring peace and stability to the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. And it’s the troops we have in South Korea and our extended nuclear deterrent commitments that resonate with North Korea and are a deterrent to an emboldened Kim Jong-un thinking that now, with the aid of Russia, he could incite conflict on the Korean Peninsula, with no consequences.

Hopefully, Kim Jong-un eventually will understand and appreciate the value of returning to dialogue like the one his father and grandfather pursued with the Agreed Framework and the Six Party Talks to end the enmity between the two Koreas and to work toward a peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula, with a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and a North Korea also pursuing normal diplomatic relations with the U.S. That should be the goal.

• Joseph R. DeTrani is the former Special Envoy for Six Party Talks with North Korea and the former Director of the National Counterproliferation Center. All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the U.S. government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. government authentication of information or endorsement of the author’s views.