It was regrettable that Vice Defense Minister Lee Joo-suk had to represent the Korean government in the significant ceremony last week marking the opening of the new headquarters of the US Forces in Korea in Pyeongtaek because of domestic political complications.
President Moon Jae-in had just returned home from attending the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the day before, and newly appointed Defense Minister Song Young-moo had yet to receive his letter of appointment at the Blue House because of objections from opposition parties when the ceremony was held on July 11.
News pictures showed retired Gen. Paik Sun-yup unveil a statue of former 8th Army commander Gen. Walton Walker, along with Korean and US dignitaries. Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, the commander of the 8th US Army, introduced the 96-year-old veteran as the only surviving Korean general who had worked with Walker when the UN forces deterred North Korean invaders at the Busan Perimeter and advanced north following the Incheon landing. Gen. Walker was one of 54,000 Americans who perished during the three-year war.
I wished I were a reporter covering that event, a milestone in the history of collaboration between Korea and the United States. I don’t know if I will ever have a chance to visit Garrison Humphreys, as the new USFK headquarters is now called, but I can claim an honorary accreditation, if there is one, having covered the EUSA/USFK/UNC for many years during the 1960s and ’70s.
We military correspondents were issued an accreditation card by the USFK Public Affairs Office. It was not a gate pass, but security guards allowed our entry for interviews, staff briefings or simple snooping for news. Sometimes, arguments arose when new guards, unaware of the established practice, insisted that we be escorted by US officers when moving inside the compound. A short-tempered colleague once shouted at a stubborn GI: “Don’t you know whose land this is!”
Korean public sentiment as to the presence of US troops in this country gradually changed from total appreciation right after the war to a sense of burden to hurt pride, as was shown in the angry reporter’s outburst. A turning point was perhaps the Gwangju Uprising in 1980, when liberal activists accused the US military of condoning or even supporting the Chun Doo-hwan clique’s bloody suppression of pro-democracy protesters.
The 8th US Army, which once consisted of two corps-level forces with several divisions, has shrunk to a single infantry division and some support outfits. But the 8th Army, with its octagonal red-white emblem and Korean acronym of “palgun,” remained a part of Korea throughout the postwar years. Its commander and headquarters staff used the same brick buildings in the Yongsan compound that had housed the Japanese occupation forces until the 1945 liberation.
President Roh Moo-hyun in 2003 pushed the relocation project vigorously while Washington was cooperative, as post-9/11 America revamped its global military strategy, including the distribution of overseas bases. Thus, 64 years after the cease-fire that ended the Korean War, we see the USFK/EUSA flag finally fluttering at the new headquarters in Pyeongtaek, reputed to be the largest single US military base in the world.
The headquarters of the Korea-US Combined Forces Command will remain at the present location just across from the Defense Ministry. Significantly, the 210th Field Artillery Brigade, the powerful surface-to-surface missiles unit with the mission to destroy the North Korean multiple-launcher rockets and long-range guns will stay at Camp Casey near Dongducheon. By the end of next year, the entire US 2nd Infantry Division will have moved to Pyeongtaek, making it the USFK’s operational hub, while Busan and Daegu will have logistical support units.
Observing the relocation process, which cost the two governments more than $10 billion over a decade, non-military citizens are wondering how it bolsters the security of the Republic of Korea in the face of escalating missile and nuclear threats from the North. Doesn’t it rather offer an easier target for North Korean missile attacks, they ask. Yet, US officers stress that the concentration means greater strategic advantage with higher survivability of troops from North Korean attack.
Defense experts explain that the convergence of USFK elements into Garrison Humphreys from about 90 US camps scattered across the northern part of South Korea makes it easier and faster to move in as well as move out because of the new base’s proximity to Pyeongtaek port and Osan Air Base. “Moving out” not only indicates the flexible use of USFK as a strategic mobile force in a conflict outside Korea but also the evacuation of Americans in the event of war here.
With the apparent success of the North’s missile and nuclear programs over these years, the concept of war on this peninsula needs modification. Victory is not to be decided by conventional forces’ confrontation across the DMZ; the winning side will be the one that effectively makes a preventive or pre-emptive strike at the adversary’s center of power or the one that retains enough retaliatory, second-strike capabilities after weathering the wave of first strikes.
For a long time since the Korean War, the USFK assumed the “tripwire” mission, making sure its aggression across the DMZ invites an automatic involvement of US forces. The tripwire role has little meaning in a future war on the peninsula, so the USFK relocation is justified under the new security environment. However, it requires an absolute condition: that is sufficient anti-missile capabilities on this side not only to protect Garrison Humphreys but the entire South Korean territory.
The completion of a 1,400-hectare military base as the home of more than 13,000 military personnel and nearly 30,000 dependents and civilian employees is yet another physical evidence of US commitment to the defense of Korea. US commanders often cite the “Gachigapsida (Let’s go together) spirit” that they say remains ironclad and strong.
That commitment is appreciable but it does not offer a sufficient assurance of security for Koreans as the North rapidly develops its weapons of mass destruction. True security comes with a balance of power which can be attained when we have capabilities matching the North’s WMD arsenal. Garrison Humphreys stands for our defense dependence on the US, which should end sometime in the future, much shorter than another 64 years.
By Kim Myong-sik
Kim Myong-sik, a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald, was a military correspondent for a long time. – Ed.
