Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!news.yamada.gr.jp!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!cyclone.rdc-nyc.rr.com!news-out.nyc.rr.com!twister.nyc.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "min10011" Newsgroups: alt.korea,alt.talk.korean,japan.asia.korea,soc.culture.korean References: <6103-3DEA5D48-636@storefull-2132.public.lawson.webtv.net> <2gKG9.11838$31.3609@nwrddc03.gnilink.net> Subject: Re: Why the SOFA is so uncomfortable - a Korean's Point of View Lines: 43 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Message-ID: Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 15:09:16 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.65.116.178 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: twister.nyc.rr.com 1038841756 66.65.116.178 (Mon, 02 Dec 2002 10:09:16 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 10:09:16 EST Organization: Road Runner - NYC Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org japan.asia.korea:312 "G. Rush" wrote in message news:2gKG9.11838$31.3609@nwrddc03.gnilink.net... > > > Korea has been divided for fifty years. Nearly 100% of modern Korean > nationhood. Don't you think that it's a long time for a country to be > divided and be dependent on foreign protection. The duration of the division is a testament to the wiliness of the North Koreans and the fact that this situation is not about these two small countries but about the larger contest between competing ideologies and the powers that back them. As for the foreign (i.e. US) protection, do you realize that most of Western Europe also depends to some extent on the US for protection? > > Well if Korea could beat the thugs in the first place, they wouldn't > require help. And yet fifty years later the problem of thugs still exist. No question that South Korea would defeat North Korea in war. What most non-Koreans simply cannot understand is that the primary objective of every Korean in the world is to see a peaceful reunification. North and South are one people divided by ideology. Just as in the American Civil War, the final objective is to restore a divided nation and not to punish or destroy an enemy. > > If US forces were to leave, Koreans would not beg to have them return. > US would not beg Koreans to let them stay either. The main point of > US presence is deter Kim Jongil from launching an attack against South > Korea. That is not the main point of the US presence in South Korea. It is an important point, but only to the extent that war would severely disrupt the American economy and catastrophically destabilize the politico-economic balance of East Asia.