미국의 동북아 다자안보체제 구축 의도와 우리의 대응

US Intentions of Multilateral Security System Building in Northeast Asia

Northeast Asia is under attentions from the world due to many phenomenal features. Foremost, this region recently experiences dynamic changes in both political and economic developments as a distinctive phase and system of politics and economy coexist across nations. Second, the remnants of the Cold War still remain in this region, which cause national interest to be conflictive. For example, individual countries in this region are confronting each other in dealing with such critical issues as territorial disputes, the tensions across the Taiwan Straits, North Korean nuclear issue, Japanese veering to the right side, other economic issues and so on. Under these circumstances, September 11th terrorist attacks on the US and the following international counter-responses promote countries in this region, which has been under the US-led bilateral security structure, to rethink their national security, including a regional security to meet the new security challenges. The fact that the US has influenced this region after World War II multiplies the difficulty with determining a course of action among countries with taking into consideration radically changing regional security issues. Without an exception, South Korea is located at the decisive juncture of setting up its response to external influence, particularly from the US. A series of North Korean nuclear issue, Japanese rearming movement, the first joint military exercise between China and Russia, “Peace Mission 2005,” all evoke the worries from regional countries. Despite these regional concerns, the US does not relax its plans for countering the threats from WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) through moving toward such initiatives as PSI (Proliferation Security Initiative), CSI (Container Security Initiative), RMSI (Regional Maritime Security Initiative), besides its ambitious and controversial plan for Missile Defense. Resuming six-party talks to deal with the North Korean nuclear threat and signing joint agreement as a step forward imply the possibility of a regional security system in this region. This implicit idea is actually suggested by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by developing the current frame of six party talks. Furthermore, a nuclear proliferation issue pushes for the US to cooperate with China and Russia, even though they originally have been antagonistic to the increasing power of the US in this region. As shown in the case of NATO, the role of the US participating in a regional security system is quite related to the extent of the US control over it. In other words, if the US does not satisfy with controlling the operation of the future regional security system in this region, the US would limit its roles of participation as shown in the cases of SEATO and CENTO. These limited roles of the US have decreased the efficiency of decision-making process and the effectiveness of timely responses from regional security systems to regional crises. All in all, the role of the US in regional security systems has been very essential. Currently, the US has faced the blowback of unilateralism, particularly in Iraq. Regarding this blowback, many prominent scholars in the US argue and warn that other powers are forming some kind of soft balancing alignment to damage US reputation and legitimacy and thus make US actions more costly. Under these circumstances, the US has seemed to approach to North Korean nuclear issue through more cooperative coordination with related countries, particularly emphasizing the role of China. Until now, this cooperative approach to North Korean nuclear issue is estimated successful. In this reason, the US and China expect to develop the existing six party talks frame into a regional multilateral security system. Nonetheless, the US still places the emphasis on bilateral alliance system such as US-Japan alliance and ROK-US alliance due to its freedom of action under the existing frameworks. Thus,