22vPaX

kim and cha • between a rock and a hard place
relationship with China and the United States. In particular, in navigating the
geopolitics in Northeast Asia, President Roh’s proclamation of South Korea
as a regional balancer was widely interpreted as Seoul distancing itself from
the United States and moving toward China. Nevertheless, this argument fails
to acknowledge the notable bilateral cooperation that the United States and
South Korea achieved under the Roh administration. Indeed, the Roh and
George W. Bush administrations pushed to open new areas of bilateral alliance
cooperation—including the deployment of troops to Iraq, visa waivers,
physical readiness training deployments in Afghanistan, and negotiations
for the Korea-U.S. FTA. The last of these became a strong foundation of
the U.S.-ROK comprehensive alliance after its successful conclusion and
ratification in 2012. 44
Thus, there does not always appear to be an inverse correlation between the
state of the U.S.-ROK alliance and the state of Sino-ROK relations. Although
during the Lee administration strong ties with Washington correlated with
bad ties toward China, the intervening factor was China’s failure in 2010
to respond to North Korea’s sinking of the ROK corvette Cheonan and the
shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. The Park government also seems to disprove
the correlation as President Park appears to have good relations currently
with both the United States and China.
concluding thoughts
There is no country in Asia that has a more complex and nuanced
relationship with China than South Korea. This complexity derives from the
convergence of South Korea’s power, economic, and North Korea dilemmas
as well as its deep fear of entrapment in escalating U.S.-China competition.
As a result, the interplay of these factors causes South Korea’s China policy
to vacillate, more so than do domestic politics alone or the state of the
U.S.-ROK alliance. Given the fluctuating nature of South Korea’s China
policy, understanding these strategic dilemmas vis-à-vis China is critical for
U.S.-ROK alliance management. The two allies must address a misalignment
of their policy priorities regarding China and determine how to sustain a
coordinated, if not common, strategy. For the United States, understanding
Seoul’s outreach toward Beijing is important; Washington should view this
not as an alliance disruption but rather as a strategic opportunity for a U.S.
44 Katrin Katz and Victor Cha, “Holding Ground as the Region’s Linchpin,” Asian Survey 52, no. 1
(2012): 52–64.
[ 119 ]