US Forces OK in ROK-for Now

March 02, 2010

By Ben Hancock

The first is an increase in compensatory South Korean military spending, which Cheong says saw a large jump during the administration of Roh Moo-hyun, who was president when the OPCON transfer was agreed upon. South Korea is now the third-largest buyer of US arms on a foreign military sales basis, buying $800 million worth in 2008.

‘Generally South Koreans think the US presence is needed,’ Cheong says, though he adds the 2000 summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il made people ‘rethink the necessity of US soldiers in Korea.’ He also says that feelings toward troops reflect overall sentiment towards the US government, and that attitudes have turned more positive since Barack Obama’s inauguration as US president.

And as with the controversy surrounding US military stationing in Japan’s Okinawa, Cheong acknowledges there’s still significant concern here about environmental degradation caused by bases and crimes committed by US soldiers.

What South Koreans really don’t want to see, he says, is their country becoming a platform for the US war on terror or military intervention against China.

‘The problem is, why does the US government want to transfer OPCON to South Korea? Because South Korea wants it? I don’t think so,’ Cheong says. ‘The main reason is the US wants strategic flexibility,’ unencumbered by the burden of having to command a foreign military.

David Oten, head of public relations for the USFK, says the two are unrelated. He says the transfer is essentially about the US military’s move from a ’supported role to a supporting role,’ and that this is a natural progression as the ROK now has a ‘world class’ military with some three million reserve troops. Two years of military service is mandatory for all able-bodied South Korean men.

Asked how significant South Korea is to the US military’s wider presence in Asia, Oten says: ‘Korea is significant in itself.’

Addressing military spending, he talks about the difference between a ‘bridging capability’ and an ‘enduring capability.’ While South Korea is rolling out its own Aegis-equipped destroyers, for example, the United States will continue to provide aircraft carriers and intelligence satellites, he says.

While visiting South Korea in November last year, Obama told troops at Osan Air Force Base, located about 60 kilometres south of Seoul, that there was a possibility some of them would be redeployed to Afghanistan.

Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have reaffirmed that US troop levels in Korea will stay close to where they are for the foreseeable future. But in a December forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, USFK Commander General Walter Sharp said: ‘We really want to get the discussion to be more based on capabilities…rather than just a number.’

‘I’m in Korea and I Hate It’ to ‘Station of Choice’

Besides the OPCON transfer, the biggest change to the US presence in South Korea is the consolidation of US bases and the normalization of troop tours, meaning deployments of two or three years with family as opposed to one year unaccompanied. The goal is to improve continuity and make South Korea the ’station of choice’–a jump from its present reputation.

‘The problem with stationing in Korea is basically a PR problem,’ says Reeder. When troops get orders to come here ‘people still picture MASH,’ he explains, referring to the 1970s American TV show about Korean War doctors.

Reeder is now a duty manager at the United Services Organizations office at Osan, meant to be a ‘home away from home’ for troops. He has spent a total of 10 years in South Korea; he was also born here, but adopted at 18 months by a US Navy family and grew up mainly in Wisconsin.

Early in his military career he volunteered for Korea duty, but it took him seven years to get here after first being stationed in Germany. (Reeder calls this ‘Army logic,’ by which the ‘poor guy’ who wants to go to Germany ends up in Korea, and vice versa).