Biden and Korean security

By Bernard Rowan

As the United States, her allies and the world prepare for the end of the Trump presidency, the calls begin for President-elect Biden to develop a coherent foreign policy respecting America's commitments and partnerships.

The morass of public health that is COVID-19 in the United States and elsewhere should speed America's return to multilateral initiatives. This includes relations with the Republic of Korea and foreign relations on the Korean Peninsula, as well as with surrounding countries Japan, Russia and China. The thicket is too thick. It will take more than four years to return America's leadership from its recent vortex.

The United States remains the de facto guarantor of peace and security among freedom-loving nations in Northeast Asia. However, Trump's false pride masked the inner reality that her power lessens, not in absolute terms, but in relative terms. And relative terms matter for international relations.

South Korea, North Korea, Japan and China all have grown and gained in their security capacities since the beginning of the 21st century. The context for peace in Northeast Asia is one of multiple players with competing agendas, as well as soft transitions away from American dominance. Americans arguably haven't fully caught on to this reality, stuck as we are in the notion "We're boss!" Our allies haven't recognized the softness of the transitions.

I say this only to urge the position that America must treat her allies more as equals and less as second powers. If we look at American commitments, we've neither the men and women nor the money to pretend otherwise. American leadership will continue.

However, Biden must lead the alliance's deepening and broadening in its membership. We must allow other nations, including South Korea, to take the lead in particular contexts. That is principally because it's in the American and allies shared national interests to do so.

We're in the midst of a century where nuclear deterrence will remain a feature of life on the Korean Peninsula. China and Russia should face more than rhetorical calls to end their support of Kim. The North's constitution depends on a false ideology that denies the traditions of Korean civilization. Venality, oppression and absurdity mark the sad story of North Korean civil society. Final and full peace remains covered by an addiction to nationalism and "juche" perhaps unknown since Hitler's Germany.

The North has tasted the deadly fruit that is nuclear power, and they intend to keep their weapons. We shouldn't forget those nations who've aided the North in making this world less safe than any time since the end of World War II. We can't hope to take their weapons away, and they deserve no bribes. Therefore, reality demands deterrence, first and final.

American 21st-century multilateralism should gain pace in Biden's first term. It should include allowing a greater role for South Korea to join in security discussions and also to lead them. This is the path to redistribute burdens. Petulant demands for more payments didn't cut it.

The recent essays featured in the Korea Times'/Asia Pacific Leadership Network Essay Contest document new ideas and methods to lead the way. The essays reflect realism about denuclearization. They show the limits of any one nation's ability to dictate goals and aims. They reflect the need to reengage careful, persistent diplomacy, including a leading role for South Korea.

The enemies of freedom also want to urge a greater role for South Korea. This is not-so-subtle rhetoric in pursuit of driving a wedge, of shaming South Koreans or similar tomfoolery. The litmus test for those who'd say they're friends of South Korea is twofold: has the nation taken fundamental action to improve South Korea's security interests?

Second, will the nation allow South Korea to direct the process of peace and denuclearization on the peninsula, including for that nation's relations with South Korea? The United States is the only country that could answer affirmatively. But there is much more to be done.

Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.

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