Anonymous:

October 17th, 2006 at 12:59 pm

pan-asian nato won’t happen. south koreans hate japan more than north korea.

mark:

October 17th, 2006 at 2:10 pm

“south koreans hate japan more than north korea.”

Some might say they hate the United States more than they do North Korea.

Granted, but the same thing was once said about Germany and France and look at those two nations today. Or Greece and Turkey, between whom little love is lost.

Security structures are not about sentiment or brotherhood but about preventing instability and war. I doubt that South Korea wants to see a Japan disconnected from a U.S. alliance or developing independent nuclear weapon capability. Let the DPRK continue as it has been and that will be the end result.

Anonymous:

October 17th, 2006 at 11:34 pm

Security structures may not be about sentiment but they are about national interest. South Korea has/is developing Korean nationalism not all that different from North Korea (which has the added Kim Jong-Il worship-as-God component). They are choosing a different path than ours. I don’t see the US/South Korea alliance surviving, how do you see it expanding to include other countries? As far as I can tell, China has still not decided where it’s fate lies. Right now they are more an antagonist than an ally. Talk of an alliance seems a bit misplaced…an alliance based on what? We have so little in common.

Barnabus
P.S. Once China starts buying hard assests in the U.S. (i.e. real estate and U.S. companies that they plan on running) then you will know that they’ve thrown their lot in with us.

mark:

October 18th, 2006 at 3:32 am

Personally, were it not for a need to prevent future problems I’d be for dropping the ROK as an ally unilaterally. They’re not worth the outlay on their own merits.

The Chinese are willing to buy, they want a hedge against the instability of their own economy, we aren’t ready to let them buy like Brits or Dutch.