The future of the ROK-US alliance in the context of Korean unification

After the Korean War, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States signed a Mutual Defense Treaty on October 1, 1953. There were many conflicts and challenges between the ROK and the United States in keeping the relationship strong. Nevertheless, the ROK-US alliance has successfully defended South Korea from the volatile threat of North Korea and maintained stability and peace in Northeast Asia. After the historical North-South Summit talks in June 2000, Korean unification is more likely now than it has been at any other time since Korea's division. Once Korea is unified peacefully under South Korea's leadership, however, Korean unification will bring into question the necessity of the ROK-US alliance. In other words, the diluting of the strategic goals of the alliance, regional concerns toward the further strengthening of today's ROK- US alliance, and growing Korean national self-consciousness for self-defense and antagonism against foreign powers undoubtedly will pressure the Korea-US alliance to modify its role and nature into a more flexible and limited alliance. Given these situations, the most important means to compensate for a weakened former bilateral alliance will be a Northeast Asian multilateral security system in conjunction with the growing economic, political, and security interdependence throughout the region.http://archive.org/details/thefutureofrokus109459193Republic of Korea Navy author.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The Soldier and the State in South Korea: Crafting Democratic Civilian Control of the Military

This study assess the extent of democratic civilian control of the military in South Korea by examining civilianization of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and parliamentary oversight over the military focusing on the role of the National Defense Committee (NDC). The MND and the NDC are key actors in civil-military relations; nevertheless, little attention is paid to the role of these institutions in improving democratic consolidation. This research found that although civilian governments in South Korea had successfully implemented parliamentary control of the military in terms of preventing the military from politics in the process of democratic transitions and consolidation, they had less success in establishing democratic civilian control of the MND. This is due largely to the ongoing high security threat in the Korean peninsula. Facing North Korean threat, the military is not ready to accept true civilians as its top leaders on the premise that civilians may not be able to perform the significant roles of minister and vice minister effectively because they do not have full experience and professional knowledge about the military. As a result, the MND retains a significant institutional autonomy in the top leadership. The research argues that civilianizing the top leadership of the MND will be one of the most important steps for South Korea to go toward deepening democratic civil-military relations in the new era of integration

Comparison of the Plasma Metabolome Profiles Between the Internal Thoracic Artery and Ascending Aorta in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Using Gas Chromatography Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry.

BackgroundThe left internal thoracic artery (LITA) has been used as the first conduit of choice in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) because of excellent long-term patency and outcomes. However, no studies have examined substances other than nitric oxide that could be beneficial for the bypass conduit, native coronary artery or ischemic myocardium. This study was conducted to evaluate differences in metabolic profiles between the LITA and ascending aorta using gas chromatography-time of flight-mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS).MethodsTwenty patients who underwent CABG using the LITA were prospectively enrolled. Plasma samples were collected simultaneously from the LITA and ascending aorta. GC-TOF-MS based untargeted metabolomic analyses were performed and a 2-step volcano plot analysis was used to identify distinguishable markers from two plasma metabolome profiles. Semi-quantitative and quantitative analyses were performed using GC-TOF-MS and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively, after selecting target metabolites based on the metabolite set enrichment analysis.ResultsInitial volcano plot analysis demonstrated 5 possible markers among 851 peaks detected. The final analysis demonstrated that the L-cysteine peak was significantly higher in the LITA than in the ascending aorta (fold change = 1.86). The concentrations of intermediate metabolites such as L-cysteine, L-methionine and L-cystine in the 'cysteine and methionine metabolism pathway' were significantly higher in the LITA than in the ascending aorta (2.0-, 1.4- and 1.2-fold, respectively). Quantitative analysis showed that the concentration of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) was significantly higher in the LITA.ConclusionThe plasma metabolome profiles of the LITA and ascending aorta were different, particularly higher plasma concentrations of L-cysteine and H₂S in the LITA