Our Position concerning the 10th Security Policy Initiative (SPI) Meeting


Suspend the ROK-US alliance reorganization conference and start to build a peace regime on the Korean peninsula!

On September 27-28, the 10th Security Policy Initiative conference will be held in Washington DC.

This SPI meeting is in fact a conference which will decide on the findings of a 3-phase study about the reorganization of the ROK-US alliance. The final decision will be made at the annual ROK-US Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), which opens on October 20. Therefore this SPI meeting will significantly transform the future of the ROK-US alliance and the Northeast Asia security situation, decisively changing the Koreans’ future, affecting peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula, and influencing our national prosperity.

The US forcibly demanded of Korea the Yongsan/ Land Partnership Plan (LPP) agreement concerning the relocation of the USFK during 2003-2004, and in 2005 the USFK definitely attained strategic flexibility, which even President Roh Mu-hyeon had openly opposed.

Now when the 3-phase study on the ROK-US alliance reorganization has been concluded, the US’s long-standing scheme for the reorganization of the ROK-US alliance has at last left the “planning stage” and entered the “implementation stage”.

The essence of the US’s concept for reorganizing the ROK-US alliance is that it is for the purpose of compelling the mobilization of ROK troops for immoral, unjust wars like the aggressive war against Iraq, using the pretext of preventing terror and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

However, our people cannot allow the ROK-US alliance reorganization, because its aim is the continued stationing of the USFK on the Korean peninsula, the collapse of North Korea and its absorption and reunification.

Under no circumstances will we support the US strategy of encircling and containing China, because it perpetuates the Cold-War-type of confrontation in Northeast Asia. 

We will prevent the transformation of the ROK-US alliance into an aggressive regional alliance, because:
1. The aggressive regional alliance is against peace and reunification, according to the 2002 joint declaration 615 between North and South Korea.
2. The aggressive regional alliance is a decisive obstacle to the construction of a Northeast Asian comprehensive security system, which would provide peace, coexistence, and mutual prosperity to all the Northeast Asian nations.

On the one side, the ROK-US governments deceive the people of both countries, concealing the aggressive nature of this alliance by calling it “ROK-US alliance modernization”. The so-called “modernization” almost appears to be the result of a joint agreement reached at a conference of the ROK and US ministers of defense.

We strongly denounce the ROK and US authorities who intend to complete the alliance reorganization by means of secret negotiations, and who have thoroughly deceived the Korean people, from the Yongsan / LLP agreement to the alliance reorganization.

We urgently call on the ROK and US authorities to suspend the ROK-US alliance reorganization conference and, in accordance with the 6-Party Talks joint statement, assume the leadership in establishing a peace regime on the Korean peninsula.

The political situation demands a peace regime on the Korean peninsula which would wind down the Cold War in Northeast Asia and respond to the aspirations of the peace-loving peoples of Northeast Asia, including our nation, who intend to begin the work of creating a system of coexistence and mutual prosperity.

Only by dissolving the ROK-US alliance, based on the cease-fire structure, and withdrawing the USFK can the US expiate its guilt for the crimes it has committed against our nation, and make at least a small contribution toward peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula.

In order to do this we urge that first of all the US suspend the expansion of the Pyeongtaek base and withdraw the offer to replace the Maehyangri firing range, and to take the lead in abrogating the agreement on financial support for the USFK (defense expense sharing).

Together we urgently call for the repeal of the ROK-US Mutual Treaty, a pact which fundamentally restricts Korea’s sovereignty -- it would be difficult to find such an unequal treaty anywhere else in the world -- and the nullification of the USFK’s strategic flexibility.

In conclusion, we strongly demand that the United States must immediately, unconditionally, return the wartime military operation control authority.

2006-9-27
Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea