I don’t find myself in agreement with Kim Dae-joong (the Chosun Ilbo columnist, not the former president) very often, but he does have his moments:
The “U.S. 386ers” - those now in their 30s and 40s who were born in the 1960s and graduated in the 1980s - believe that if Koreans see the U.S. as a factor of insecurity for Korea, the U.S. no longer need embrace it. They already see the six-party talk structure on North Korea’s nuclear program as not a three-on-three with the U.S., South Korea and Japan on one side and North Korea, China and Russia on the other, but as a two-on-four setup: South Korea isn’t on the U.S. side, they believe, but on the “other side.” They believe that U.S. troops in Korea are a hangover from the time when China and the former Soviet Union were enemies of the U.S., and since Beijing and Moscow have become partners of Washington, the justification and need for their continued presence on the peninsula have greatly decreased. Washington, they say, must readjust its troop commitments to match the new situation and environment.
Something for policy makers to keep in mind, of course. And another reason why I can’t get a handle on laws like ths.
