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[Feature] From the Korea-US Alliance to the Korea-US Relationship / Kim Joon-hyung

The Quarterly Changbi 179, Spring 2018

 

Abstract

While Korea-US Alliance, consolidated since the Korean War, forms the nucleus in the structure of hostile opposition between North and South Korea, it has been claimed as indispensible supporter of peace in South Korea. Furthermore, the loyalty toward the alliance itself has functioned as standards for determining even Korea's foreign policies. In this context, Kim Joon-hyung argues with the legitimacy of the "Korea-US Alliance", the rigid, asymmetric, and even sacrosanct framework of the Korea-US relationship under the division system, prohibiting any other practical approaches or imagination to the relation itself. This "alliance-absolutism" repudiating any basic norms regarding alliance in general, has forced us to identify "Korea-US Alliance" with pacifism. Therefore, he insists constructing a peace system requires the alliance to be secularized more horizontal and flexible.