The Death of an Alliance, Part XI

All I can really say is, uhhhhhhh:

Korea and the U.S. have decided to divide the future security environment on the Korean Peninsula into three or four levels including full unification and use them to draw up a new blueprint for their military alliance. The Defense Ministry said Monday the two nations agreed to the plan in principle. Pending confirmation, the levels include “reconciliation and cooperation”, “peace and coexistence” and “unification.” The new-look military alliance will be unveiled by the end of the year to include references to “USFK strategic flexibility” and a development plan for wartime command of allied Korean-U.S. forces.

The article is agonizingly sparse on specifics, but from the little I can gather, this really sounds like a mutual agreement to “see other people.” It looks like Korea proposed something based on its new “balancer” doctrine, and the U.S. agreed in principle that it liked the idea of renegotiating the whole alliance just fine.

I expect we’ll see much, much more about this in the coming days.

Other posts in the DOA series:

• Part X, Korea’s “Stealth” Reduction of its Iraq Contingent; the Administration Muddies Up Its Message on Libya and WMD;
• Part IX, South Korea Cozies Up to China;
• Part VIII 1/2, Cost-Sharing and Unilateralism;
• Part VIII, Think-Tankers’ Bearish Views of U.S.-Korea Ties;
• Part VII, Cost-Sharing Negotiations Break Down, U.S. General Announces Layoffs;
• Part VI, the Korean government’s quixotic declaration of neutrality toward the nation on which it depends for its defense;
• Part V, the failure of a symbolic congressional resolution commemorating the alliance;
• Part IV, the GNP leader’s alarm at the unpopularity of Korean government in Washington;
• Part III, the reconsideration spreads to the left-of-center Brookings Institution;
• Part II, Thomas Barnett and the Asian Wall Street Journal reconsider the alliance;
• Part I, describing the universal unpopularity of the South Korean government in Congress;