Comments on: On North Korea, Washington Should Listen to South

By: Gordon Chang

Gordon Chang — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:56:04 +0000

kenny komodo, thanks for your comments.

I agree South Korea’s military is ready to fight. We should be proud that Seoul is our ally. This is a successful alliance.

And as for your last comment, we should be better prepared to stop the North Korean military from moving south. With generals gaining even more power in Pyongyang, the risk of conflict on the Korean peninsula has risen dramatically in recent months.

By: kenny komodo

kenny komodo — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:26:51 +0000

Having spent several years serving with the U.S. Navy in The Republic of Korea, as well as being married to a Korean woman, I can find no validity in any statement about Korean people disliking America. Yes of course there are students demonstrators, just as there are here in America, and if they happen to be loud and carry some anti America signs well that is just a small but vocal minority. I’ve met many Korean people and every one of them was grateful for our presence in Korean to strike down the attempt by the Communists to take their country. The Korean military is competent, ready, disciplined and fully capable of taking on the N. Koreans should that time every happen. The Korean government supported our efforts in S.E. Asia, sending troops to Vietnam that were so successful and feared that the N. Vietnamese would not engage them unless it was unavoidable. I am probably in a very small minority of Americans but I feel that the only way to really stop the idiocy that is coming from N. Koran is to force an invasion, to cross the DMZ in strength and remove that little tin pot dictator that is holding the people of N. Korea in slavery, in fear of death and in misery.

By: Gordon Chang

Gordon Chang — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:41:56 +0000

lee, Kim Young Sam did not urge taking out North Korea. He urged the United States to not support it at a critical moment. And, in retrospect, we would not be worrying about Kim Jong Il now if Clinton had followed his advice then.

By: Gordon Chang

Gordon Chang — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:37:53 +0000

Blackwell, in reality, South Korea has two electorates of about equal size. The “progressives” are the ones you write about. The other is fanatically pro-American. And, fortunately, public opinion is going our way.

Another point: There is no holding Japan in an alliance if we walk out of South Korea. Japan becomes essentially indefensible once we lose South Korea and Taiwan. Look at a map.

By: lee

lee — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:21:30 +0000

I disagree with Blackwell that South Korea is not a valuable US ally, but there’s no denying that they rarely act like it. South Koreans hate two countries with fanatical passion – Japan and the United States. The never ending controversy regarding Dokdo and the 2002 armor vehicle accident, or even the recent “mad cow disease from us beef” hysteria provide a glimpse of their disturbing brand of nationalism. With a dangerous “sibling” developing nuclear ambitions right above them, you’d think S.Korea have an incentive to seek closer relationship with two of their (de facto) closest allies, but their public often regard them as mortal enemies.

But I’m not particularly confident that South Korea can capably defend themselves, even if they “manned” up. They couldn’t do it 50 years ago, and they probably can’t do it now. In fact, the Lee Myung Bak admin shouldn’t even think about going “solo”. That’d be a disaster. I have friends and siblings living in Korea. They still need our help, though ingrates they are occasionally.

I like president Lee, especially after the disappointing Roh Moo Hyun (rest in peace). I really hope he does urge Obama to take a tougher stance with North Korea.

Did Kim young Sam urge Clinton to take out Kim’s regime? I don’t think I’ve heard of this. I know Kim Dae Jung, his succesor, helped bring about the dubious “sunshine” policy with North Korea.

South Korea – a country still wating for their first great president.

By: Blackwell

Blackwell — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:11:10 +0000

15: Sir:

The “choice” between binding the US to help a fairweather friend or losing all our other allies there is a false one.

SoKo is not a US ally as the Brits or Austrailians are: they love us for our markets, detest our army and thought George Bush was the enemy.

One thing learned from Vietnam is to think long and hard about defending people who feel imposed upon when asked to defend themselves– and to measure the worth of a country before comitting 50,000 US lives, thousands more wounded and paralyzed and billions of dollars to its defense.

If the SoKo’s won’t man up for their own defense and think NoKo is just misunderstood, we are delusional in defending it. For what? (I have the same dim view of defending the rather selfish people in Taiwan as you know.) I see no advantage for us in SoKo: Japan is a different matter. Surely the Japanesen would appreciate it if we do not fritter away dollars and lives in a place that does not matter.

Chia is going to fill the vacuum anyway: we ought to decide now where we draw the line in our own interest, not reflexively rush to bleed lives and dollars for places like SoKo. We ought to maintain our strength for places that matter to us.

By: Gordon Chang

Gordon Chang — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:07:54 +0000

Steve, because our diplomacy has been so bad for so long, we have lots of room to improve it before we have to resort to force. We can, if we want, destroy the North Korean regime without firing a shot. Bush nearly did so with his financial sanctions before he inexplicably removed them.

By: Gordon Chang

Gordon Chang — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:04:43 +0000

Ole Sarge, yes. Thanks for stating this.

By: Gordon Chang

Gordon Chang — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:03:55 +0000

Meryl, our president will learn about the necessity of employing sensible policies because the Norks will not leave him alone. This will, however, be a costly lesson.

By: Gordon Chang

Gordon Chang — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:01:10 +0000

Blackwell, I understand what you are saying, but do you think the United States would have any allies left in Asia if we just pulled out of South Korea? The answer is probably no. Remember the problems we faced after Vietnam? This time, the fallout would be worse, because China would fill the vacuum.