Crossed Responses to the Reduction of U.S. Forces

Responses of politicians were quite different on the subject of early reduction of 12,500 U.S. forces in Korea.

The Uri Party reacted by saying: “The decision was an inevitable one according to the strategic change in U.S national defense.” However, the Grand National Party (GNP) and Democratic Party urged the government to take special measures for dealing with the security vacuum.

Visiting the U.S. recently as a special envoy of the GNP, assemblyman Park Jin said, “The Independent theory of national defense in the government has accelerated the reduction to some extent,” adding, “It is a serious problem that the decision was made by one-way notice of U.S. on the reduction of 12,000 U.S. forces in Korea, followed by the dispatch of U.S forces in Korea to Iraq.”

An expert on national defense and assemblyman of the GNP, Hwang Jin-ha, pointed out, “Korea and the U.S. should keep up their restraints against North Korea. Now it is hard to put trust in the assertion of government, which says that the Korea-U.S. alliance has no problems.”

A secretary general of Democratic Party, Lee Jeong-il insisted, “The more severe thing is that the government’s policy on North Korea and the U.S. is without direction and its contents don’t build trust between Korea and the U.S. or between the Koreas.”

Meanwhile, the Uri Party’s Lim Chae-jeong mentioned, “Resisting power against North Korea of U.S. forces in Korea is not determined by the number of soldiers,” adding, “We need to make use of this situation for easing the strain between the two Koreas since North Korea has demanded a withdrawal of the U.S forces.”

A assemblyman, Ryu Shi-min said, “If the U.S. wants to leave, they will do it. What we can do is just let it happen.”

Young-Chan Yoon yyc11@donga.com