It appears that the US - ROK Defense relationship is similar to that of me and my wife. In principle they should be getting along soundly, but when it comes to issuing a public statement, sometimes signals get crossed.
A senior U.S. defense official squarely denied an announcement by a senior Korean military officer that a strategic order was given to specify that Washington will provide a nuclear umbrella for South Korea in response to North Korea's atomic weapons.
It took another seven-and-a-half hours after the meeting ended for the joint communique to come out, with officials working overtime after their superiors had left to hammer out the wording. Some say this was the worst-ever SCM due to a series of diplomatically rare events.
This tug ofwar is nothing new to Korea watchers. Since Noh Moo-hyun took office, the current administration has done its best to set itself on a different course than the US. The problem is though, in recent weeks the ROK has found out that it might be exposed to some Nuclear Rain and that an Umbrella might just come in handy.
A senior U.S. defense official squarely denied an announcement by a senior Korean military officer that a strategic order was given to specify that Washington will provide a nuclear umbrella for South Korea in response to North Korea's atomic weapons.
It took another seven-and-a-half hours after the meeting ended for the joint communique to come out, with officials working overtime after their superiors had left to hammer out the wording. Some say this was the worst-ever SCM due to a series of diplomatically rare events.
This tug ofwar is nothing new to Korea watchers. Since Noh Moo-hyun took office, the current administration has done its best to set itself on a different course than the US. The problem is though, in recent weeks the ROK has found out that it might be exposed to some Nuclear Rain and that an Umbrella might just come in handy.
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