Domestic Politics And The Post-cold War Us-rok Alliance Is Defined

In the end of the Korean War, the United States reached the alliance with South Korea. The establishment of US-South Korea alliance was to defend the expansion of "communism" in the Peninsula and Northeast Asia. Although the US-ROK alliance faced setbacks in history, now it is still the most important alliance in the Peninsula. On the one hand, in the beginning of this century anti-US sentiment in South Korea draw the alliance into trouble; on the other hand, dissatisfied with the South Korean government's policy toward the North Korea as well as the attitude of dissatisfaction with treatment to alliance, the United States started to adjust USFK and to assess the value of the alliance.According to the time, South Korea's domestic political environment could be divided as: During the Cold War, only conservative forces in domestic political arena, there conflicts were"no ideology". Conservatives in South Korea was a wish to maintain the status quo and oppose radical change. Through the features of "group", "regional" and "generation gap", the Conservatives can be divided into different forces of the parties. After the Cold War, the accomplishments in economy and politics accelerated the opening of society. Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, two leaders of progressive forces were elected as presidents in a row which made gradual growth of progressive forces in domestic political life. Now the Progressive plays an important role domestically. South Korea political democratization and economic achievements gave the birth of anti-Americanism, although anti-Americanism cannot shake the US-South Korea alliance, but the interests of both the US-South Korea alliance has had a significant impact.Due to the geopolitical position, South Korea has a relatively limited choice in foreign policies. Roh Moo-hyun, the "regional balancer" is a bold attempt but failed, because of the impact of objective conditions. After the Cold War, the US was aware that the US-ROK alliance cannot be limited to specific traditional threat. From the Bush Administration, it started the assessment on the value of US-South Korea alliance, the new role of the USFK.US-South Korea alliance is built on the "balance of deterrence" and "balance of power" as the alliance of un-symmetry. Facing the prospect of the Korean Peninsula, the alliance is in the transition to "balance of interests" and "safety balance". The function of the US-ROK alliance should be redefined according to the environment in the Peninsula and the area. On the one hand, US will keep its military presence in Asia, on another hand, the modification of the alliance also proves that its transition to be a balancer in this area; the USFK would change its role for maintaining the interests of United States.