Now is the time for a gallant peace gesture from Washington or for Seoul to quit the war games – twice-yearly events, dating back to 1976, in which US and South Korean military forces deploy thousands of troops to simulate various scenarios for conflict with the North.
This summer’s games involved 17,500 US troops and 50,000 South Koreans. To North Korea the games simulate invasion. War games with a specific offensive objective violate the UN Charter, that is, international law.
The current mutual oppositional defiance between Pyongyang and Washington has evoked alarmist reactions and feverish talk from all parties except China, which has sensibly proposed a dual freeze: The US stops its perennial war games; North Korea stops testing missiles and nuclear weapons.
In China this is a moderate position between those sympathetic to North Korea and those who want Beijing to take a hard line as Washington insists. Former US defense secretary William Perry, who once advocated pre-emptive strikes, agrees with a mutual freeze. In an August 1 editorial, The New York Times cited experts who endorse the freeze. So why not?
US pressure on Beijing to pressure Pyongyang without regard to Beijing’s views does not work. The Chinese might do all they can to end North Korea’s tests and move toward denuclearization, but only if Washington gets out of their way and commits to accept whatever Beijing can accomplish. Beijing will not serve as Washington’s surrogate or tolerate provocative second-guessing. And Washington has to forswear its regime-change tactics, another violation of the UN Charter.
For a relevant if imperfect historical analogy, compare Operation Mongoose – a secret program aimed at removing the Communists from power in Cuba – under the US administrations of Dwight Eisenhower and John F Kennedy.
The question remains: Why does Washington insist on continuing the war games? Is it about strategy, military budgets, promoting weapon sales, face? Is the purpose to maximize tensions and so push South Korea away from China and toward Japan?
South Korea invests heavily in the former Manchuria, and its trade with China has reached new heights. Thus Beijing has as large a stake in Seoul’s security as in Pyongyang’s, certainly a larger stake than Washington, which many Koreans view as uninterested in South Korean security. Why does Seoul go along with the games?
In its August 31 print edition, The Wall Street Journal reported that “South Koreans feel sidelined in Pyongyang crisis”. They see Washington dealing with Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow while bypassing Seoul and taking lightly President Moon Jae-in’s insistence that his country’s government must approve military action. Western media similarly tend to minimize or ignore Moon’s position while fanning the rhetorical flames. Is Washington pressuring Seoul (and the media)? Pyongyang’s willingness to negotiate with Washington is likewise played down.
Furthermore, why assume Washington wants peace? President Moon has tried to set some limits on Washington’s aggressiveness. Like Japan, South Korea is an occupied country, and the new president may want to assert some national sovereignty, supposedly protected by international law. More generally, continuing the war games reinforces the wobbly “pivot”, the “presence” of US military power in the West Pacific area to compensate for the decline of US economic importance and moral authority – especially vis-à-vis China.
Claiming it stands on higher ground, Washington says the proposed freeze-for-freeze (games for tests) implies equivalence with the inferior North Koreans and that the US could not possibly lower itself to create that impression. On the contrary, Washington’s own moral authority is diminished commensurately with the gross disparity in the size and power of the antagonists. In any such unequal contest, the more powerful party bears responsibility for making the first move toward settlement.
Tokyo too, unloved in both Koreas, would do well to reflect sincerely on how to play a more peace-oriented role, as its own laws require, rather than exploiting the situation for promoting its own militarism and undermining Article 9 of its constitution, which renounces belligerency. Other nations would do well to bring Article 9 into their own constitutions.
"War games with a specific offensive objective violate the UN Charter, that is, international law.". Which article of the Charter forbids this? It is certainly common enough among the world’s militaries.
Sorry it is not me, please pull down my byline, thank you!
Tug of war only for regional strategic hedgmoney. US dare not initiating any folly. South K President truely understood the Koreans are going to die and not the Americans. North K President also knows the weaker vain of US so will keep on playing. China smiling from the distance. Rest all is routine and will continue.
Not true Joel Bigman — hmmm Berkley High School– really?
I would like to believe you are right– it is not clear given the even great military presence in the US govt. War is money–
Great article. Sad(but predictable) to see May follow along the US position. China and Russia leadership have never looked so good.
Let’s remember the end game here for KIm and North Korea. That is for Korean unification with total control exercised by Kim in Pyongyang. But that is only stage 1. The second part of the plan is to use the wealth of South Korea to continue to build up nuclear and missle capability and to increase and strenghten the military. Then Kim can be a major player in SE Asia and the Pacific Rim. Don’t be naive. KIm is a brutal dictator who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Does this answer the questions that the article asks? Yes. That is why the US continues military preparation. In addition, Kim has directly threatened the US and Guam which is a US territory. These are direct threats. The US is not naive. The US understands who Kim is. Do those posting here understand?
I am very sorry, there has been an awful mistake: the article was written by professor Moss Roberts, a person I greatly admire. For some reasons, my byline went in and has not been changed yet, despite several notes. I apologize deeply to professor Roberts and I am ashamed by this unintentional theft. I also apologize to the readers for this very unfortunate mistake.
I am deeply concerned at the ratcheting up of tensions at the UN this morning by President Trump’s speech. As a peace activist who posts frequently, I find myself constantly exhorting my government to resolve its geopolitical differences through moral, hard, win/win negotiations. I would hope that some in the Bowels of Power in DC have the horse sense to realize that this beligerence can only end with a war which thinking people absolutely don’t want to see happen.
Yes of course two authoritarian regimes that crush dissent and kill journalists have never looked so good. You must have a thing for despots clueless Carol
What absolute rubbish. North Korea would not be capable of taking over the south with it’s dated military and economy one fourtieth the size of the south.
so who indeed keeps pushing this crisis to the edge, and what do they get out of it?
the Koreans don’t want another war in their own land: they have nothing to gain.
Russia and China are too close to Korea for comfort in case of nuclear war: they get nothing out of the results. they lose trading partner-neighbor.
Japan have ruined its own land, so it is keen on gaining new territory all the time. they certainly want to reclaim their former colony, the Korean Peninsula. no doubt.
the USrael has least to lose and most to gain from a war, as it is far away from Korea. if not a full blown war, the USrael want to squeeze $$$$$ out of South Korea for weapons systems, which will reinforce SK’s dependency, military/economic/political, on Usrael for a long time.
Chris Greene, you must be referring to occupied Palestine and occupied usa but isn’t that quite out of context to this article ?
USA under israeli influence IS the brutal dictator who will stop at nothing to achieve it’s goals. Been rampaging the mid east since the end of the cold war. Bad cop.
He works for the deep state. Must keep the war machine running, as long as destruction don’t happen in us mainland.
Ken, you are so right but usrael simply must destroy itself to destroy others. Must keep them weapons manufacturer happy. Only when destruction comes to us mainland then they might have second thoughts.
What do you expect KJU to do when usrael openly threatens to bomb NK. He might be young but not stupid. He doesnt want to end up like saddam nor ghaddafi. Usrael prancing around with drills off NK,’s waters as preps of attack doesn’t help a bit. China’s suggestion of a double freeze should have been taken into consideration is usrael were sincere but unfortunately not so it seems.
China does not have the same kind of influence over NK that US has with SK with military occupation.
This North Korean crisis is just noise———-move along ———nothing to see hear!!