China could make the the whole problem go away by withdrawing their support of Kim.
And remember that if it weren't for us, the entire peninsula would be "North Korea." Including your own home.
You're welcome.
What the heck are you talking about? South Korea has already chosen a side. Your country runs military exercises jointly with the USA and Japan.
Americans spilled blood and gave their lives to defend South Korea after North Korea (backed by China and Soviet Russia) invaded on 6/25/1950. The US sent hundreds of thousands of troops to defend South Korea, and currently has 30k troops stationed in South Korea. Our two countries have agreed that the USA would take military command if war were to break out.
There are extreme human rights abuses and health deficiencies on the north side of the 38th Parallel, but the south side has grown to be economically powerful and extremely prosperous despite being a fairly poor country at the outset of the war. Your country and mine maintain a free trade agreement, and have traded 100 billion dollars worth of goods this year.
I personally bought a Samsung phone and a Samsung TV, so I'm about $3k of that.
Don't forget who your friends are!
See, this is what I mean when I say I object to such reasoning. People are so bold, they're always willing to sacrifice other people's lives to defend freedom.
South Korea's forces had lost 70,000 men in five days before the USA came to your aid in 1950. In the fighting that ensued, 37,000 Americans perished to defend your country. Please consider that.
Alliances are double-edged swords. I'm curious, what would be your perspective if the U.S. decided that South Korea was no longer worth defending and pulled it's troops back to Guam and Okinawa?
You mean, what if the US decided that keeping an air force base within 1000 km of Beijing isn't worth the cost?
Well, it that case, it sucks, because our national defense budget will likely have to increase a lot. But an independent country cannot outsource its defense to others forever, so South Korea should have contingency plans for such a case, or at least I hope so.
As you said, alliance goes both ways. The military ties to the US did help us tremendously in the past. But the US is not stationing thousands of soldiers out of goodwill: they're doing it because South Korea is located at a really convenient position in America's game of global dominance. I think it's mutually beneficial (for now), but if America decides it isn't, well then that's it.
Hint: maybe we keep military bases in SK to defend South Korean, because over the past 67 years of our alliance, South Korea has become a fantastic trade partner and we want to ensure that such a mutually beneficial relationship continues far into the future.
But you can't sell prospect of a nuclear war against China, because people have iPhones made in China, so they know it's absurd: why would China want a nuclear war? A threat has to be believable to sell to people. So we talk about North Korea. Nobody in the US has bought anything from North Korea: they are a dark, evil, and mysterious people, and it's easy to believe they can be also suicidal.
(Yes, the North Korean regime is evil: they're so evil that they make China look like boy scouts. But they aren't suicidal.)
There are other reasons why going to war against China wouldn't be that advisable.
http://www.businessinsider.com/navy-chinese-microchips-weapo...
https://www.wired.com/2011/11/counterfeit-missile-defense/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fake-parts-in-hercules-aircr...
I hope I don't sound like a China apologist: the Chinese government has done a terrible crime, and it's a shame that not enough Chinese people are demanding justice, and sooner or later they will have to look back and recognize what happened, hopefully sooner rather than later.
However, packaging that as "the threat of China" is a self-serving narrative that will harm people. I guess you mean well, but in the end that justifies America interfering with other small countries and supporting their dictators, because, hey, otherwise China will be doing the same and at least "our guys" won't be as bad as "their guys". (Just don't look too closely at what our guys are doing.)
More personally, as a South Korean, America having such an opinion basically means my country is forced to "choose side", hurting our economy and destabilizing military balance in East Asia. The only benefactors are military complexes of China and the US.