Research On The Korea Diplomatic Dilemma Under The Korea-Us Asymmetric Alliance

In international politics, to know why the states form alliance and how they choose their friends is of great significance. Alliance can be defined as the security cooperation between sovereign states with the formal and informal agreements, aiming at keeping their security and fighting against countries outside the members. The motivation of National alliance is to safeguard their’own interests, and the state will plan to form alliances only when the benefits of doing so are greater than the price they should pay. On basis of size and strength of the alliance members, as well as the contribution divided in the alliance, alliance generally exists in two models, the symmetric alliance and the asymmetric one. Compared with the symmetrical alliance, asymmetrical alliance is more difficult to form and last longer, but it is a more common. Generally speaking, asymmetric alliance is composed by a powerful country and a weak country. Due to the existence of the asymmetric structure of the alliance, internal members face different difficulties because of their different position and strength. Small countries usually face more alliance dilemma compare to big countries. In the stage of alliance formation, as the small country facing a serious security threat, its essential purpose is to gain the big country’s security protection at the expense of its independent interests. After the alliance formation, the small country mainly face "implication" and "abandonment" security dilemma, on one hand, the small country fear of being implicated when the big powers become tough against their enemies, on the other hand, they are afraid of being abandoned when the big country take mitigation measures. At the same time, in the development of asymmetric alliance, as a result of the changes of strength, especially the small country, the demand to change the unequal status within the alliance will come into being. This will force the alliance to be redefined which can even lead to dissolution, this is the main "dynamic" dilemma a small country faces. Korea-US alliance is just such an asymmetric alliance in case. The most important issue South Korea facing is the internal alliance dilemma in it. At the initial stage of the Korea-US alliance, South Korea is facing the dilemma of transaction of security and independence. Due to outbreak of the Korean War, South Korea suffered a serious security threat. In this case, to obtain the security guarantees from the United States, Korea had to ally with it at the cost of its independence. South Korea’s army is completely under the leadership of the United States and complies with U.S. in the domestic and foreign policy without any of independence. After the formation of the Korea-US alliance, South Korea is facing the alliance dilemma of "implication" and "abandonment". After the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the South Korean government was finally forced to request U.S. to send troops to Vietnam. Although it hasn’t many actual interests and faces the opposition pressure of domestic people, South Korea did so with the purpose of escaping from the judgment of the USFK. It worried that the U.S. government might evacuate some of the USFK and announces a reduction in support for South Korea. With the development of the Korean economy and further improvement of its strength, it began to seek a change of status relationship within this asymmetry and prepare for the ultimately reunification of the peninsula. But this demand is subject to U.S. global strategy, it is not easy to reach. The asymmetry between the ROK-US alliance relationships has a profound impact on South Korea’s foreign policy. In order to obtain protection from and support of the United States When South Korea was founded; its foreign policies were completely attached to the United States. South Korea began to take independent foreign policies in order to see a growth of Korean economy strength. Korea government implemented a balanced foreign policy based on international and regional situation changes after the end of the Cold War. The conduct of foreign policy was influenced by the United States, in other words, the Korea-US asymmetric alliance structure, facing various degrees of dilemma. Of course, observed from the long-term point of view, South Korea’s diplomatic predicament will always exist as long as the situation in Northeast Asia and Korean Peninsula remains grim and America’s strategy is still unchangeable.