Korean Media: The Role of U.S. Forces in South Korea Is Unavoidable, Need to Find Ways to Respond

The Trump administration's new National Defense Strategy (NDS) stated: "South Korea should primarily take responsibility for dealing with the conventional military threat from North Korea." This means that the United States will focus on containing North Korea's nuclear weapons, while the U.S. conventional military forces will be used to deal with other threats such as China. Therefore, the transformation of the role of U.S. forces stationed in South Korea seems inevitable, possibly reducing the number of troops or using them to counter China.

This is expected. Before the Trump administration, the United States also adjusted the operating plans of the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea according to changes in technology and geopolitics. Long-range strikes using supersonic missiles have become routine, and China's military strength has been rapidly increasing. It seems that the United States views South Korea as a front-line surveillance base against China. South Korea's military has also expanded in size, with its army's self-propelled artillery, multiple rocket launchers, tanks, and other weapons reaching world-class levels. Its air force and navy can already suppress North Korea. The presence of U.S. forces stationed in South Korea is gradually weakening.

Even if the U.S. strategy does not change, South Korea's conventional military power should be able to suppress North Korea. However, South Korea's military only appears to be growing on the surface, but it is rotten inside. The number of active-duty soldiers decreased by 110,000 over six years, and there were only 450,000 last year. The Ministry of Defense originally planned to maintain 500,000 regular troops by 2028, but there is now a gap of 50,000. Over the past 20 years, the Army has lost 17 divisions. Although it is said that the gap can be compensated with robots, drones, and artificial intelligence, the limitations of this approach are evident. Because without soldiers, there will be no one to operate advanced weapons.

The morale of the officers with poor treatment is also declining. Every time there is a change of government, only the wages of soldiers are increased under the pretext of populism, resulting in similar income between junior officers and non-commissioned officers. After the martial law was imposed, morale deteriorated further, and even some training was not carried out seriously. Last year, the Yoon Suk-yeol government postponed various trainings such as joint South Korean-U.S. exercises due to the hot weather. Training is meant to maintain combat readiness and to temper the soldiers, but it has been postponed under various excuses.

After the U.S. released the new National Defense Strategy (NDS), President Yoon Suk-yeol immediately stated: "Self-defense is the most basic of all basics. South Korea's defense spending is 1.4 times that of North Korea's GDP, yet it cannot defend itself, which is impossible." These words may seem reasonable, but they only gave a positive self-evaluation of the growth of South Korea's military size, without providing specific solutions.

Only when the political circle changes first can self-defense change. In order to gain votes in elections, the political circle shortened the conscription period to 18 months. If there is no determination to extend the service period again or introduce female conscription, the problem of the source of soldiers cannot be solved. Innovative solutions must be found to improve morale, and training must be conducted solidly without looking at the outside's face. Since the transformation of the role of U.S. forces stationed in South Korea has become a reality, we must first change the public perception that without U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, something bad would happen.

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855394597073930/

Statement: The article represents the personal views of the author.