Senator Bumpers Invites A New Korean Crisis

(Washington, D.C.): As the Senate moves to consider legislation that would require the unilateral reduction of 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in Korea, the Center for Security Policy released a paper, entitled Must History Repeat Itself? Congress Should Not Invite North Korean Aggression, that criticized the initiative on historical, strategic, and economic grounds.

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s Director said, "Senator Dale Bumpers, the principal sponsor of the amendment to the Defense authorization bill, has made clear his ultimate purpose: he wants to remove all American ground forces from South Korea. His present initiative will be seen by friends and potential adversaries in the region as the first step toward that goal — a signal of receding American commitment to the security of a key ally at a turbulent moment in its history."

"The last time the United States sent such a signal in Korea was when then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson indicated that South Korea was not within our ‘defensive perimeter,’" Gaffney added. "It cost us 50,000 dead and tens of billions of dollars to rectify the situation that resulted when Kim Il Sung took us at our word."

The Center’s analysis provides useful information about: the continued expansion of the North Korean threat; potentially destabilizing developments in the region; the contribution South Korea is making to its own defense; and the near-term fiscal and military costs of implementing the troop withdrawal called for by the Bumpers amendment.

"We at the Center for Security Policy believe that the sort of precipitous and unilateral reduction called for by Senator Bumpers would be an ill-advised approach under the best of circumstances," Gaffney said. "It is positively irresponsible to be urging the adoption of such an initiative at a moment when South Korea is facing an undiminished threat from Pyongyang, acute domestic turmoil as it struggles to introduce democratic reforms and growing instability throughout the region."