US-South Korea alliance ‘strong’ despite Washington’s mixed messages, Korea Society president says
Korea Society President Thomas Byrne tells the Post that Kim Jong-un sees nuclear weapons as ‘the ultimate guarantor of the legitimacy of the regime’
Following a week of conflicting messages from the administration of US President Donald Trump about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, Korea Society President Thomas Byrne commented on the relationship between Washington and Seoul. Speaking to the South China Morning Post at the Korea Society’s New York headquarters, Byrne also addressed the response to China’s call for an end to US-South Korea joint military exercises and the reasons behind the failure of market reforms in North Korea. The Korea Society is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting greater “awareness, understanding and cooperation between the people of the US and Korea”.
Byrne said the North Korean leadership thinks developing nuclear weapons “is the ultimate guarantor of the legitimacy of the regime”.
What should we make of concerns that mixed signals from Washington about its approach to military threats from North Korea signal wavering US military support?
The fundamental message has been consistent since the Obama administration into the Trump administration. The chairman of the JCOS’s (US Joint Chiefs of Staff’s) visit to Asia shows that the alliance is strong. We have a national interest in peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and we’ll maintain a robust alliance with Korea and Japan. That’s key because deterrence is crucial. North Korea would like to see a wedge driven between the ROK and the US and a weakening of the alliance. Having a robust alliance is something that, historically, every government in South Korea and the US has upheld. That’s certainly the case now with the Moon Jae-in government and with Trump, and it was the case with Obama and Park Geun-hye. It was the case with Roh Moo-hyun, despite a bout of anti-Americanism at the beginning of his term, and George W. Bush.
What are the chances that China’s “suspension-for-suspension” proposal, whereby the US and South Korea halt their joint military exercises, will be accepted?