Warming tides?

It seems that the ROK and the US are in the minds of renegotiating the details of their military alliance. There are no real big changes on the table (last year was more about moving the base out of Youngsan) but one issue that sems to be the darling of the Korean media is that of "Control over 'wartime' forces". As it stands right now, the ROK has control over it's forces during peace, but should ar break out on the peninsula, the US gets opperational command.

Personally, I'm glad the ROK is in a position to negotiate important points like this. I would like to have the Korean people more responsible for their own future, and this might just be a step in that direction. I hope though that it can be done with as little "kick out the foreign devils" as possible. The truth is, and this might surpise many of my readers (do I have many?), I think the US should look at a staged withdrawl of the majority of their troops. In the very least, they need to pull the troops out of Youngsan. The ARMY should never be in the heart of a city, it just doesn't fit with their job.

President Noh seems to think though that the Americans are looking at him more fondly. Lets hope that translates into more negotiating power eh.

"The United States appears to be accepting South Korea's changed attitude," Mr. Roh said. "The U.S. must be relieved to find that I am more moderate than they initially thought."