The effects of Korean unification on the US military presence in Northeast Asia

Parameters, Winter, 2002 by Carl B. Haselden, Jr.

NOTES

(1.) Andrew Scobell and Larry M. Wortzel, The Asia-Pacific in the U.S. National Security Calculus for a New Millennium (Carlisle, Pa.: US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2000), p. 22. Stanley O. Roth, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, expressed a similar view in his remarks to the Asia Society in Washington, D.C., on 11 January 2001. Roth felt one of the greatest challenges potentially facing the Bush Administration was "managing the consequences of success. Specifically, I am referring to the need under these circumstances to address the issue of the forward deployment of U.S. troops in the Asia-Pacific region." US State Department, internet, *http://state.gov/www/policy_remarks/2001/010111_roth_uspolicy.html, accessed 6 September 2002.

(2.) The numbers are provided from the USCINCPAC homepage under "US Pacific Command Facts," internet, http://www.pacom.mil/about/pacom.htm, accessed 6 September 2002. In Japan, there are 47,000 US military personnel ashore and 7,000 afloat; in the ROK, there are 37,500.

(3.) Robert Dujarric, "Korea after Unification: An Opportunity to Strengthen the Korean-American Partnership," Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, 12 (Summer 2000), 52. Dujarric predicts unification may take place between 2010 and 2020, but it could happen sooner. Jonathan Pollack and Chung Mm Lee, Preparing for Korean Unification (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, Center for Asia Policy, International Studies, 1999), internet, http://www.rand.org/nsrd/capp/pubs/korea.html, and http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1040/, both accessed 6 September 2002. Pollack and Lee state the ROK-US alliance must be prepared for a rapid reunification and the follow-on issues that go with it. Andrew Scobell, U.S. Army and The Asia-Pacific (Carlisle, Pa.: US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2001), p. 19. Scobell states reconciliation may take place within a decade and reunification within 25 years.

(4. Eric A. MeVadon, "China's Goals and Strategies for the Korean Peninsula," in Planning for a Peaceful Korea, ed. Henry D. Sokolski (Carlisle, Pa.: US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2001), p. 131.

(5.) Ibid., p. 199. McVadon states one of the formulas for failure of a new or evolving Northeast Asia security architecture is waiting for the change on the Korean peninsula to lay the groundwork.

(6.) Washington Headquarters Services Directorate for Information Operations and Reports on the Korean War 50th Anniversary Home Page, internet, http://korea50.army.mil/casualties/Koren_War_Casualties.htm. It lists 23,615 killed in action and 2,459 died of wounds.

(7.) Nicholas Eberstadt and Richard J. Ellings, eds., Korea's Future and the Great Powers (Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 2001), p. 321.

(8.) James A. Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, testimony before the Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, House Committee on International Relations in Washington, D.C., 12 June 2001, internet, http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2001/3677.htm, accessed 6 September 2002.