Even after the end of the Cold War between The United States and the Soviet Union in 1990, various forms and intensities of conflicts are now still locally taking place and underway in the world due to various reasons. Among these, a half of all conf...
Even after the end of the Cold War between The United States and the Soviet Union in 1990, various forms and intensities of conflicts are now still locally taking place and underway in the world due to various reasons. Among these, a half of all conflicts in the world is in the Asia and Africa region, and the risk at anytime in our country is very high due to conflicts of geopolitical issues and the interests of major north east Asian countries. During these continuing risks, there was a change in factors which can affect the security of Korea as new leaders in the north east Asia region launched their new systems in 2013. The first factor is the competition between The United States and China in Northeast Asia over supremacy, the second is North Korean nuclear program and military provocations, the third is the response policy of South Korea and the United States on North Korean nuclear issue, and the fourth is the revival of Japanese militarism and turning strong right, and territorial disputes over Dokdo, Iodo and Senkaku Islands between Korea, China and Japan, and these issues will be a new factor in the dispute.
Thus, the major countries in the region with their interests confront in various forms to achieve their national goals, and these factors are requesting the changes in South Korea's national security strategy. Therefore, In this paper, the dynamic relationships of the major northeast Asian countries(the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and North Korea) and changing factors of the security environment through this, and any subsequent direction of South Korea's national security strategy establishment are intended to be proposed. For this purpose, first the security properties of Korean peninsula, the security strategy keynotes of major countries in this region and their military power buildup trends, and the dynamic relationships between and security environment changes of surrounding countries is analyzed and the direction of security response strategy that Korea has to establish is intended to be proposed through this. In 2013, many changing factors in security policies and military buildup factors of the major countries in the northeast Asia were made as they launched new leadership systems, and various views on changes in security order of northeast Asia region became also available by these changing factors. The major northeast Asian countries in the region are making their best efforts under the life-and-death commitment in order to dominate the region, and the variable will be very diverse according to the relationships with neighboring countries. However the recent situation is accounted for negative side than the positive side due to the interaction of many variables such as a conflict for regional dominance, territorial issues between countries, and the North Korean nuclear issue. Especially the competition of the supremacy between existing and emerging new powers, U.S. and China, is becoming visible, and it is a very important time for Korea. For Korea how to stipulate the variable, "North Korea" will be a very important determining factor. However, in order to solve a problem, a major principle is needed. When it comes to the North Korean nuclear issue, 'all nuclear shut down' will have to be the principle, without any of our concession. In order to resolve the problem keeping this principle, the alliance with the U.S. is very important, and the cooperation with China is also important. Thus, keeping the traditional and integrated alliance with the United States, the cooperative relationship with China in economic issues excluding military one should be well maintained. Based on the trust established through the cooperation with China, we should encourage China to be aggressively involved to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. In addition, a realistic counter measure should be established with preparedness and commitment to strong action against provocation since the continuing sanctions may cause North Korea to want a breakthrough by terrorism or local provocation. In other words, the intention of provocation should be fundamentally blocked by early identifying the intention, keeping an ability to respond to the initial matching and advanced preparation at the same time, and we should be equipped with an ability to respond and punish thoroughly if the provocation of South Korea's land or people's life and property are even slightly damaged, so that a thought of repeated provocation is not even considered. Also the exercise of collective self-defense issues and turning strong right of Japan, Dokdo issue and Iodo issue with China should not result in an armed conflict, but besides tough and decisive policy making and response as well as political and diplomatic attempts, various approached such as increasing people's interest is needed.
People's security awareness is the key to the national security. We know from the defeat of Vietnamese war how much a mature security consciousness is important. We have to know that a country is no longer sustained with only 5% of entire population with faint consciousness of security, and it is important to have people keep the right views on our eternal history and national security.
It is very important time now to establish and practice the principle to flexibly respond to a situation and aggressively and decisively to various security threat in order to achieve the national goal of Korea, and keep in mind that people should strongly support this country's will.