Where is US-ROK relation heading amid dispute over military expenses?

美压韩国承担更多驻军费用,未来双边关系走向何方?

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Li Jiayao
Time
2019-11-27 17:02:04

By Fang Xiaozhi

方晓志

The US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper recently increased the pressure on ROK to share more expenses for America’s military troops on the Korean Peninsula because Washington believed the ROK was rich enough.

近期美国国防部长马克•埃斯珀加大对韩国施压力度,要求后者应该为美国在朝鲜半岛的军事存在支持承担更多费用,究其原因,还是因为韩国足够富裕。

US forces more military expenses for stationed troops on ROK

美挑战韩承受极限

According to the US, its troops stationed in ROK solely serve its security, and the constant muscle-flexing operations and military exercises by its warplanes and aircraft carriers in Northeast Asia are “defense preparations” against threats from the DPRK, so all the expenses should be borne by ROK. Washington requested that the expenses ROK bear should be increased to USD 5 billion, which includes expenses both within ROK and outside the Korean Peninsula, such as those occurring on Guam and Hawaii.

美方认为,由于驻韩美军完全服务于韩国安全,美军战机和航母多次到东北亚展示武力并开展军演,都是为了应对朝鲜威胁的“防务准备”,因此这些费用都应该由韩国来买单。此次美方提出要将韩国承担的驻军费用增加到50亿美元,不仅涵盖发生在韩国境内的美军开销,而且还包括美军在半岛以外区域的部分费用,例如美国海外属地关岛、美国夏威夷等地。

Such an avaricious request has challenged the bottom line of Seoul and encountered strong opposition in the country. The Blue House said that American troops stationed in ROK mainly serve America’s strategic need of containing other countries, and ROK has already offered maximal financial support for their main activities. For instance, it bore nearly 90% of the USD10.8 billion to build Camp Humphreys, America’s largest military base overseas. It has also purchased huge amounts of American weapons and provided living facilities for them.

这一“狮子大开口”的要求,挑战了韩国的承受极限,遭到了韩国的激烈反对。韩国认为,驻韩美军的存在更多的是充当美国牵制其他大国的战略需要。而且韩国在美军的一些主要项目上已经竭尽全力地提供了最大财政支持,比如美国在海外建设的最大的军事基地汉弗莱斯军营花费近108亿美元,韩国就承担了其中的近90%。此外,韩国还大量购买美国武器,提供生活保障设施。

US-ROK divergence presages its future relation with allies

美韩分歧预示美与同盟关系未来

The divergence on military expenses between US and ROK is bound to significantly impact the alliance relations.

美韩关于驻军费用的分歧,必然会对其同盟关系造成重要影响。

Its alliance system has been an important means for America to exercise its global hegemony and also a crucial basis for its overseas military operations. Although the US military has never disclosed the accurate number of its overseas troops on the excuse that its intentions and capabilities should not be revealed to the opponents, incomplete statistics indicate a rough number of 350,000-400,000 troops can be reached.

长期以来,同盟体系一直是美国实施全球霸权的重要手段,也是美国实施海外军事行动的重要依托。虽然美军以“不向敌人暴露意图和展现能力”为由,没有公布海外驻军的精确人数,但据不完全统计,大约在35万至40万之间。

The troops stationed overseas carry out political infiltration and control toward American allies and lay a solid foundation for its alliance system. With these troops, US provides security protection for its allies, but more importantly, it can interfere in their internal affairs and consequently expand its worldwide influence.

这些海外驻军成为了美国对盟友进行政治渗透和控制的工具,奠定了坚实的盟友体系基础,美国凭借这些海外驻军,一方面向盟友提供安全保护,另一方面也可以借此插手盟友的内政,扩大自己在世界上的影响力。

After Trump took the office, he has spared no effort in advocating “America first”. Believing that the allies undertake too few responsibilities and obligations, he insists that they should bear more, or even all of the military expenses for stationed American troops. As a result, military expense sharing has become an important reason for the tension between the US and its allies.

特朗普上台后,大力推行“美国优先”政策,认为盟国所承担的责任和义务太少,必须提高盟友军费分摊比例,甚至全额承担。这使得军费分担问题成为美国与盟国关系紧张的一个重要因素。

By forcing ROK to bear a much larger share of the expenses, the US will proceed to impose the same pressure on other allies such as Japan and Germany as well, so as to make them all bear more expenses for its overseas troops.

此次美国要求韩国大幅提高驻韩美军的承担比例,其目的就是要以韩国为突破口,继而向日本、德国等其它盟友施压,逐步地达到向所有盟友增加驻军军费的目的。

ROK will compromise in the end

韩基于现状最后终将妥协

Although the ROK strongly opposes America’s request for it to bear more military expenses, it stands at disadvantage to the US in terms of security because it doesn’t have independent national defense, its economy and politics are influenced by the US, and it is unable to deal with threats from the DPRK by itself.

从未来发展来看,虽然韩国对美要求其大幅提高军费分摊比例持强烈反对意见,但由于韩国并不具备独立的国防,且经济和政治方面始终受到来自美国的影响,同时来自朝鲜的威胁始终是韩国所无法单独面对的,在安全问题上,更多的是韩国有求于美国。

In view of the Korean Peninsula situation and its own security, the ROK will continue to rely on the military support from US in the short term, and not accept the complete withdrawal of American troops from it. It hardly has any other alternatives in the game with the US, and will have to compromise in the end.

基于半岛局势和自身安全的不确定性,为了保护自身安全,韩国短期内不会彻底摆脱对美国的军事依赖,也不会接受驻韩美军完全撤出,在韩美双方的博弈中,韩国能够选择的余地很小,最终只能在讨价还价中达成妥协。

(Fang Xiaozhi, a researcher at the BRI Institute of Strategy and International Security, Fudan University)

(作者为复旦大学一带一路战略与国际安全研究所研究员)

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