A renewed U.S.-South Korean alliance

“Everything will turn into ashes, not just a sea of flames.” Those recent words launched a series of North Korean taunts of South Korea and its new President Lee Myung-bak. North Korean state propaganda attacked the president himself, calling him a “traitor” and a “U.S. sycophant.” North Korea test-fired short-range missiles; North Korean fighter jets probed South Korean air defenses; and South Korean officials were ejected from a joint economic zone located just inside the North Korean border after South Korea linked its expansion to progress on the dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program.

This is the type of hostility that the U.S.-South Korean alliance has successfully checked for nearly 60 years.

Pyongyang is testing South Korea’s new president, trying to sow seeds of doubt in President Lee Myung-bak’s head before his new North Korean policy takes shape. President Lee has expressed a desire to level the playing field in North-South relations and speak honestly about the North Korean regime. For years, the relationship between the two has been unequal, with Seoul offering olive branches and aid that the North simply pocketed, while ignoring the abysmal human rights situation north of the border. President Lee is now insisting that South Korean assistance be reciprocated with North Korean progress on the nuclear front.

The United States can help bolster its new ally in Seoul with a firm show of support following Lee’s visit to the United States last week. An immediate boost to the alliance would be for Congress to enact legislation we have authored to enhance defense cooperation between the two countries, a topic to be discussed during a Foreign Affairs committee hearing tomorrow.  The administration has stated its support for working with Congress to pass legislation to grant Korea the same access to U.S. military technologies as our NATO partners.

The armed forces of the United States and the Republic of Korea have stood together to preserve peace and stability in Northeast Asia for 60 years, with nearly 29,000 U.S. soldiers hosted on the Peninsula today. Yet, South Korea does not enjoy the appropriate preferential treatment with respect to foreign military sales.  Our legislation would fix this anomaly, granting South Korea the same preferential treatment enjoyed by members of NATO, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan (“NATO+3”), speeding defense purchases. This is a status that has been officially requested by the Korean government for years.

By joining NATO, several former Soviet and Warsaw Pact states have been given preferential foreign military sales status allowing them to better train and fight with U.S. forces. Speaking in support of our legislation, General Bell, Commander of U.S. Forces Korea, recently testified to Congress that it is “bizarre and strange that we would give a higher level of foreign military sales status to anyone other than the Republic of Korea.” Countries such as Slovakia, Latvia, and Lithuania are good defense partners – but no better than Korea. The Koreans have proven to be a larger foreign military sales partner than any NATO+3 member. Seoul rightly asks why it has been excluded.

While foreign military sales to Korea benefit the U.S. industrial base, they strengthen combat readiness and efficiency. The U.S.-South Korean alliance is distinct. With a Mutual Defense Treaty dating to 1953, Korea and the U.S. form perhaps the most integrated alliance of interoperable forces. On the Korean Peninsula, interoperability isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a real life practice that passage of this legislation would help cement.

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote last week to Congress in support of our bill, “An upgrade would facilitate [South Korea’s] purchases of U.S. military equipment more rapidly, promote interoperability between our two militaries, provide motivation for [South Korea] to continue to buy American defense products, and cost the U.S. taxpayer nothing.”

As the alliance has matured, the Koreans are rightly on the path towards assuming the lead for their own defense. With that, Korea plans to invest approximately $290 billion in military hardware over the next dozen years. Without updating our laws to reflect the strategic nature of our relationship, we run the risk of South Korea looking to other suppliers as it continues its defense transformation, perhaps jeopardizing the interoperability of our forces. Congress can act to prevent that from happening, while giving the U.S.-South Korean alliance a boost at a needed time.

Royce is the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. Tauscher is the chairwoman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. Both have recently visited South Korea.