Military-Political Relations between the Republic of Korea and the United States at the Present Stage

The article analyzes the content of military-political cooperation between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States in 2024 from the point of view of its compliance with allied obligations on mutual defense, countering the North Korean nuclear missile threat and ensuring peace in the Indo-Pacific region (IPR), outlined in the Washington Declaration adopted in 2023. The allies took measures to strengthen the extended deterrence system, including the development of new conceptual documents related to nuclear and strategic planning, as well as the implementation of large-scale simulation and field exercises. Consistent efforts have been made to extend the scope of bilateral activities beyond the Korean Peninsula (KP) to the entire IPR. The allies acted from the position of a global comprehensive alliance responsible for maintaining regional security. At the same time, their joint criticism of Beijing regarding its maritime policy, as well as of Russia in connection with its increasing scale of military-political cooperation with the DPRK, has been expressed on regular basis. In general, 2024 can be perceived as a cloudless period of giving the relations of the ROK and the United States new qualitative characteristics of a "nuclear" and "global" alliance. These elements were built on the allied basis in the absence of any obstacles in the form of issues of cost sharing for the maintenance of the American Forces in the ROK and other problems that had previously significantly affected the dynamics of military-strategic cooperation. Taking into account the results of the past year, the article analyzes the prospects for the further development of the South Korean-American military-political alliance in 2025.

Republic of Korea, USA, strategic alliance, nuclear deterrence, Indo-Pacific region