Claiming that South Korean politics are subordinate to American politics isn’t exactly unfair…
To this day, the US maintains a military presence on the DMZ, the zone separating the borders of the two countries. Twice a year, they conduct a mock invasion of the north with the ROK Army. The Republic of Korea’s army is copied from the US structure and was created by the US military occupation: they have four-star generals, they have a Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Republic of Korea (versus a Joints Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America). It shouldn’t come as a surprise: their military was created wholepiece in 1945 by the US presence in Korea. The South Korean equivalent of the CIA was named, you guessed it, the KCIA (now the National Intelligence Service).
More notably, ROK Forces obey the US officers present in Korea through the CFC, the Combined Forces Command. This is the only country in the world which is under this arrangement. While the CFC has changed its mandate a little bit in the past few years, it still states that in case of war involving the Republic of Korea, the US Army will take over command of the Korean forces. A state that has no agency over its military cannot be said to be a sovereign state.
Indeed, I meant to say I hate to sound so american centric.
But I thought US bases were pretty essential to SK’s security against NK?
Claiming that South Korean politics are subordinate to American politics isn’t exactly unfair…
South Korea was created from thin air by US generals
Uhh, might wanna rethink that one once Trump’s in power…