1. The New Chapter for ROK-US Alliance in the Twenty First Century: The Case of Missile Development.
- Author
-
Tae-Hyung Kim
- Subjects
- *
BALLISTIC missiles , *CRUISE missiles - Abstract
With the signing of the ROK-US Missile Note in 1979, South Korea's ballistic missile capability was constrained to a range of 180km with a payload of 300kg, until 2001, when the two parties finally reached an agreement to expand it to 300km with a 500kg payload. South Korea's acceptance of a curb on this attractive advanced weaponry is rather strange given much-publicized missile capability of North Korea. Despite the more than a half century-old alliance structure between South Korea and the US and the US security assurances, it is puzzling for Seoul to abstain from seeking its own missile capability fore more than twenty years amid growing dangers coming from North Korea's missile development efforts. This certainly demands plausible explanation. Yet as soon as the agreement was revised in 2001, Seoul spurted up to develop and upgrade its own missile capability. South Korea now possesses significant ballistic and cruise missile forces. The dramatic policy shift reflects both the changes in external security environment and the growth of domestic confidence in economy and politics. In this paper, I apply medium power theory to understand South Korea's unique position in the regional security environment and its foreign policy behaviors, focusing on its policy towards missile development. After extending the theoretical framework for a non-major's power foreign policy, I closely examine the development of the ballistic missiles in the Korean Peninsula. I interpret South Korea's long-time lack of missile development and its recent energetic efforts to upgrade and develop its missiles as a strategy dictated by South Korea's dual identity as a medium power in a global sense, which has recently found confidence and capability, and as a small state, within the context of its regional security situation. This conclusion carries policy implications for the future security environment in the region, including the ROK-US Alliance, and demonstrates the potential utility of medium-power foreign policy theory. Regardless of domestic political changes in South Korea, any debates regarding the future security relationships between South Korea and the US must take account of South Korea as a medium power ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008