The U.S. tendency to see the multiple threats posed by North Korea as a single major security issue is a mistake; instead, the various issues need to be broken down so that different approaches can be taken to each, according to Dr. Brad Glosserman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“While U.S. security planners are most concerned about the prospect of North Korean belligerence, contingencies are also based on crises deriving from North Korea weakness and collapse,” Glosserman, making a presentation to the 7th Northeast Asia Security Policy Forum at the Koreana Hotel in Seoul, explained.
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He went on, “A famine in the north, a civil war among political factions or other triggers of domestic unrest could also destabilize the Korean Peninsula, and while this would not pose a direct military threat to the U.S. and its allies, the U.S. must be prepared for the military dimension of such calamities.”
“Each form of threat requires a different reaction,” he asserted. “When we talk about North Korea, we need to be precise and discreet as to how we can counter or engage Pyongyang on different levels.”
The weakness of regional powers is one further area of concern, he also pointed out, noting that from the U.S. perspective South Korea is “underperforming” and could do much more if it could look beyond the Korean Peninsula.
Regardless, the U.S. will continue its unwavering commitment to the Asia-Pacific region, and hopes to be able to work with China rather than entering into competition or conflict with it.
“The key point is that the U.S. sees Asia as an arena for cooperation among militaries,” he emphasized. “Asia remains central to U.S. strategic planning and U.S. national interests.”
