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By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent
A US think tank has called for more US Marines to be stationed on the Korean Peninsula in order to support the improvement of the Korean military’s capacity to defend and respond to North Korean attacks in the West Sea region.
In report entitled “U.S. Force Posture Strategy in the Asia Pacific Region: an independent assessment” submitted to the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee on July 27, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted, “There is also increased ROK [Republic of Korea] interest in expanding the USMC [US Marine Corps] presence on the peninsula because of weaknesses in the ROK Marines capability to manage West Sea contingencies as revealed in the Cheonan warship sinking and the Yeonpyeong Island shelling.”
It added, “The utility of USMC training also increases because possible North Korean use of WMD in the central front puts a premium on deep sea maneuver from the sea in any war or instability scenarios.”
The report named Guam, Kadena Air Base and Korea as possible deployment sites for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) units in order to boost defense capacities in the Asia-Pacific region.
The report also advised, “The United States has not taken any steps to replace the brigade removed from 2ID [2nd Infantry Division] in 2004, but there would be clear advantages to augmenting the 2ID with a ROK brigade or rotational units from the U.S. Army National Guard and Reserve.”
In addition, the report noted that other things could be considered, including deploying 2ID’s artillery brigade north of Camp Casey, a US base in the town of Dongducheon near the DMZ, and returning an attack helicopter squadron to Korea.
The CSIS is a fairly influential think tank, and attention is focusing on whether the US Congress, which is reluctant to boost defense spending, will accept its recommendations.
In an opinion attached to the report, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he generally agreed with the CSIS’s recommendations, but expressed his opposition to recent calls from some quarters to abandon plans to dissolve the Combined Forces Command.
Meanwhile, about the proposed pacts between Korea and Japan on military intelligence sharing and cross-servicing, the CSIS said military cooperation between Korea and Japan would be a positive factor.
It also predicted that “In the longer-term, South Korean views of Japan are more malleable than they are of China,” revealing an understanding far removed from Korean domestic opinion.
　
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