Open Letter to the US House of Representatives International Relations Committee's 
Hearings on the Korea-United States Alliance 

This letter is sent by the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea (SPARK), an organization established in South Korea which works to bring about friendly and cooperative relations between the Republic of Korea and the US and to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula. 

We hope that the ROK-US alliance hearing, which is being held on Sept. 27th in order to consider long-standing issues of ROK-US relations, will help the Congress to play a constructive role in establishing mutually beneficial and equal ROK-US relations and bringing about peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula. 

In order for that to happen, an honest understanding of the Korean people's wishes is a necessary prerequisite for holding a hearing. At this hearing, however, that precondition is lacking: no provisions have been made so that the Korean people's views and demands can be heard. Accordingly, we present below our proposals and viewpoints to your committee and committee chairman, in order to maintain the objective of holding this hearing and to make a contribution to the establishment of mutually beneficial and equal ROK-US relations. 

1. First, we ask your committee to give the Korean delegation an opportunity to attend the hearing and present testimony, which reflects the concerns and views of most Korean civic and social organizations. 
It is fundamental that you listen to the Korean people'spoint of view at the hearing concerned with the ROK-US alliance and the Korean people's anti-US feelings. In particular, if you listen to the views of the Korean peace and reunification movement, your hearing will gain in importance. 

2. We urge that the wartime military operation control authority be returned immediately to the ROK government. The great majority of the Korean people do not regard North Korea as a threat. Consequently, if wartime military operation control authority is returned to the ROK, there is no longer any problem with regard to the security of the Republic of Korea. 

The US portraysthe North Korean military threat, based on nuclear weapons, missiles, and conventional weapons, as a danger to ROK-US joint security and is worried that there is a problem for Korea's defense if it returnsthe wartime military operation control authority. However, North Korea is not in any way a threat to ROK or the US, as its annual national defense expenditure, amounting to tpf=board/list&board_code=11.5 billion, is only 7% of South Korea's national defense budget, and no more than 0.3% of what the US spends on defense, and its gross national product (GNP) is not even 1/3 that of South Korea's. The claim that North Korea could be a danger to the US misleads the American people and the Korean people, just as Iraq could not have been a menace to the US. 

The North Koreans know that if they used their nuclear weapons or missiles, their country would be totally destroyed, so from that viewpoint the nuclear weapons and missiles function only as a deterrent, and it is an exaggeration to think of them as a threat. 

On the other hand, the US has adopted a nuclear first-strike strategy (2002 Nuclear Posture Review, 2006 National Security Strategy). Also, the ROK-US joint military forces hold war exercises which use a first-strike strategic plan, taking North Korea as the target, similar to Operational Plans 5026, 5027, and 5029. The objective of these strategic plans is the collapse of the North Korean regime and the destruction of North Korea's military, leading toabsorption and reunification. In this way, the US's policy of hostility toward North Korea is what most fundamentally threatens peace on the Korean peninsula. Consequently, 61% of the Korean people in South Korea regard the US as the main cause of a potential war on the Korean peninsula, and 56% of the Koreans think that the way to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem peacefully is for the US to abandon its policy of antagonism toward North Korea and offer guarantees of security. 

If the US will revoke the economic sanctions and hostile policy toward North Korea and step forward to conclude a Korean peninsula peace treaty, the concern about North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles can be resolved easily. 
From this standpoint, Representative Jim Leach's proposal -- to first have talks on a peace treaty and afterward hold 6-party talks -- is a great contribution to peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula. We urge you to strive to revoke the Bush administration's policy of hostility toward North Korea, to normalize North Korea-US relations, and to immediately restore ROK wartime military operation control authority to the ROK armed forces. 

3. We urge that the reorganization of the ROK-US alliance, which is moving forward under the leadership of the US Department of Defense, be suspended. It runs counter to peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula and, furthermore, the peace and stability of Northeast Asia. 

The existence of the ROK-US alliance is at risk because of the end of the Cold War and the cooperative development of South-North relations. And the US Forces in Korea (USFK) has reorganized itself in various ways since the early 1990s. Even so, the US is planning to continue stationing the USFK on the Korean peninsula. The Bush Administration is serious about reorganizing the alliance. The primary aim of the reorganization is to use the USFK as an Asia-Pacific regional rapid deployment force to implement the first-strike policy against North Korea. They use the pretext that it is to fight against terror, to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, to support democracy and human rights, but really it is for the purpose of compelling the mobilization of Korea's armed forces for an unjust war, like the war against Iraq. 

At the annual ROK-US Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), opening on October 20, the reorganization of the ROK-US alliance will be agreed upon. This reorganized alliance will be a serious obstacle to the establishment of a peaceregime and reunification on the Korean peninsula. Not only that, it will also lead to a perpetual war crisis on the Korean peninsula and a keen arms race between North Korea, China, and Russia on one side, and South Korea, the US, Japan, and Taiwan on the other. Therefore we call on your committee to pressure the Bush Administration to suspend its reckless reorganization of the ROK-US alliance, and to provide the leadership for building a structure of security and cooperation among all the nations of Northeast Asia. 

4. We urge that the ROK-US alliance be liquidated as part of the process of shifting over to a peace regime on the Korean peninsula. 

The ROK-US alliance and the peace regime on the Korean peninsula cannot co-exist, because the alliance's purpose is to restrain North Korea and ultimately to destroy the North Korea regime. On the other hand the establishment of the peace regime means mutual prosperity and peaceful co-existence between South Korea and North Korea. 

If a peace treaty is signed which puts an end to the United Nations Command (UNC), consequently the cease-fire agreementwhich is administered by the UNC would also cease to exist, At the same time, according to the same logic and international law, the ROK-US alliance, which was based on military confrontation between North and South Korea, should also be liquidated. In 1989, as the Cold War was ending, the US Congress passed the Nunn-Warner Amendment, which was designed to reduce the national defense budget, and to facilitate the phased withdrawal of the USFK. In view of this, it seems possible to us now to open discussions on terms of a peace treaty, including the liquidation of the ROK-US alliance, the abrogation of the Mutual Defense Treaty, and the withdrawal of US troops from Korea. 

5. We urgethat the USFK's strategic flexibility be invalidated and the US base expansion in Pyeongtaek be cancelled.

The South Korean government was forced to agree to the policy of strategic flexibility for the USFK. The dispatch of USFK troops to combat missions outside Korea, such as the war in Iraq, violates the terms of the Mutual Defense Treaty. The Mutual Defense Treaty stipulates that the USFK can operate only in Korea, and only for defense against a potential attack by North Korea. 

The Korean people are very concerned that the strategic flexibility of the USFK can entangle the USFK and Koreans in undesired disputes in Northeast Asia. The introduction of the strategic flexibility and the parallel relocation oftroops to Pyeongtaek --requiring the expansion of Camp Humphreys, the seizure of farmland, and the expulsion of the farm families from their homes -- has outraged many Koreans. We hope your committee will take the initiative in the establishment of mutually beneficial and equalROK-US relations by terminating the USFK's strategic flexibility and cancelling the base expansion at Pyeongtaek. 

The current level of anti-American feeling among Koreans dates from 2002, when two school girls were run down and killed by a US military vehicle. The Pyeongtaek farmers' struggle to save their farms and homes has served to intensify anti-US sentiments even more. It is not just a temporary feeling. Most Koreans do not want the unequal relationship with the US to continue as before. This angeris only aggravated by the Bush administration's continued policy of hostility toward North Korea, attempts to strengthen the ROK-US alliance, and interference with reconciliation and cooperation between North and South, using the theory that North Korea threatens peace. 

We hope that the committee will take this opportunity to open a new era in Korean-American relations, to put an end to the misunderstanding and hostility, and begin to cooperate with us on the basis of mutual respect and equality. 

Sep 26, 2006
Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea (www.spark946.org)