"Korea must become like Israel, small but strong"
National Campaign for a Strong Korea attends security conference in U.S. Capitol
"If we can't defend our country, we may be absorbed into China"
By Kuk Yeon (Segye Times Correspondent) and Bill Gertz
Washington, DC = The seminar was jointly sponsored by The Washington Times Foundation, Asia Pacific Peace Initiative and Peace 2049 Institute.
Kook Jin Moon speaks to a meeting of the Asia Security Initiative on March 19, 2012, in Washington, DC.
Kook Jin Moon, co-chairman of the National Campaign for a Strong Korea, reminded participants that China lies in the background of numerous provocation by North Korea and that China is the key element threatening South Korea's national security.
"History tells us that only the strong countries are able to maintain peace," Mr. Moon said. "We need to be a strong and independent Korea in order to protect our identity."
"The reason that peace has been maintained in northeast Asia for the past 60 years is the presence of U.S. military power," Mr. Moon said. "That power, however, has begun to retreat from this area, and something needs to replace this power."
"If we do not fulfill our responsibility to protect our freedom and our nation, who will do it for us," Mr. Moon asked rhetorically. "If no one protects us," he warned, "we may find ourselves absorbed into China."
"Any statement that there is nothing Korea can do if China seeks in the long term to take us over, because China is a large country and we are small, would show a lack of imagination," Mr. Moon said. "Korea must take Israel as its model and become a small but strong country."
The seminar was attended by some 100 persons, including senior related persons of the militaries of South Korea, United States and Japan, together with prominent professors and persons related to the U.S. Congress. Participants carried on a heated discussion for more than four hours.
Participants from South Korea included Jeong Roh Yoon, president of the National Campaign for a Strong Korea, Seo Young Lee, defense attaché to the Embassy of Korea to the United States, Lt. Gen. (ret) Sang Bae Jeon, former ROK Army headquarters deputy chief of staff for intelligence, Maj. Gen. (ret) Gi Hak Kim and Dr. Seung Ju Bae, senior fellow at Korea Institute for Defense Analysis.
Participants from the United Sates included Dong Moon Joo, president of The Washington Times Foundation, Adm. (ret.) James Lyons, Jr., Adm. (ret.) Patrick Walsh, former commander of US Pacific Fleet and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas McInerney, former commander of Alaska Command. Participants from Japan included Vice Adm. (ret.) Yuji Koda, former commander-in-chief of the Japan Self Defense Fleet.
Participants at the Asia Security Initiative listen as Mr. Kook Jin Moon gives his lecture "Strong Korea?
Retired military officers call for curbing China’s power
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China's burgeoning military poses a significant security threat to Southeast Asia and beyond unless quickly counterbalanced by the U.S. and its allies, said several retired military officers Monday at a Washington symposium.
That threat could hit global waters in as soon as 10 years, Yoji Koda, a retired vice admiral with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, said at The Washington Times Foundation-sponsored event at the Capitol.
“The U.S. may be shadow-boxing against an elusive threat to them … [but] today is not the time to shadow-box,” said Adm. Koda, who was a senior fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center. “The U.S., Japan and South Korea must be ready and together prepare for the growing Chinese threat 10 to 20 years from now.”
Because China’s long-range nuclear missile capability doesn’t match that of the U.S., it relies heavily on mobile warships as potential launch sites for nuclear weapons, he said.
“The role of China's navy is much larger than that of the United States,” he said.
China also is beefing up its naval presence in Africa and South America as a way to expand its global influence, Adm. Koda said.
“That’s the frontier for China,” he said. “To exercise its influence and also to gain a victory over the natural resources competition in Africa, China needs a navy.”
Patrick M. Walsh, a retired U.S. Navy admiral who commanded the U.S. Pacific Fleet from 2009 to 2012 and was a vice chief of naval operations, warned that China’s political, economic and military expansion will be both “dramatic and traumatic.”
The growing procurement of warships by nations throughout Southeast Asia — including China‘a recent intentions to purchase aircraft carriers — challenges security and stability in the region, he said.
Adm. Walsh added that China’s millennia-old conflicts with its neighbors and its sense of history make the arms race in the Pacific Rim different than those in the Middle East.
“This is not an ideology, this is the nation-state concept coming in to direct contact and collision with a country that views itself as a civilization,” he said
Adm. Walsh also warned against viewing China and other Southeast Asian nations as only economic partners.
“It’s easily to rationalize something as being too far in the future to be worried about,” he said. “Looking at economics as a sole indicator of national interests and roles will bring you to just ignorant one-dimensional conclusions.”
Kook Jin Moon, chief executive of Saeilo Enterprises and Tongil Group, called on the U.S. and democratic nations worldwide to band together to keep China’s military in check.
“China has never used its power to benefit others; China has used its power to benefit China,” he said. “This has been its history.”