Will the Korean and US navies start playing together in the Indian Ocean? Perhaps so. Citing a local news report, Mingi Hyun blogs that the ROK Navy has for the first time stationed one of its commanders at the US 5th Fleet headquarters in lovely Bahrain.
This is particularly interesting as it may reflect a move to expand the scope of the Korea-US alliance to include projecting power into regions outside of Northeast Asia. Writes Mingi:
With regards to South Korean rationale behind accepting the USN’s offer, a media report quoted a South Korean defense official as saying, “South Korea’s national power has increased, and it is apparent there has been an escalation of threats from pirates against fishing vessels operating overseas in areas such as the coast of Somalia…. This measure was decided upon in order to expand the structure of the US-ROK alliance, and to provide greater safety for our citizens.”
The above statement is certainly new in an important way. The positive verb usually attached to the US-ROK alliance has been “strengthen,” while the concept of “expanding” the alliance, suggestive of tackling non-North Korean threats and involving power projection, is something I have yet to find in statements made by South Korean officials. Certainly, the US-ROK alliance has “expanded” in recent years with South Korean troop deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the word used to describe the purpose of such overseas deployments has usually been “strengthen.” The use of “expand,” I believe, is an indication, albeit a minor one for now, that South Korea’s changing defense policy is increasingly obviated as the country’s growing naval capabilities increasingly permit.
Interesting stuff. Of course, seeing how Somali pirates apparently have a thing for Korean commercial vessels, it would be nice to eventually see Korean warships in the region to help maintain security.
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In his New Year Reception on Jan. 15, LMB made an oblique reference to Korea “assuming its share of responsibilities as a global citizen” (I am copying this quote from the otherwise-worthless AMCHAM Journal). Sitting there at the time I was hoping this kind of thing is what LMB meant.
Definitely another step towards the ROKN goal of transitioning from a green water navy to blue water navy.
I find this interesting considering Noh’s remarks a couple of years ago at the ROKAF Academy graduation regarding US power projection in the Pacific Rim. So the ROKs are ok with deploying from US ports but not vice versa? Interesting.
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