US Military In Korea

Haselden's main argument is that Korea's reunification would change the current Northeast Asia security/military situation, with Korea, the US, Japan, China, and Russia. He also discusses how the combination of strong economies and strong militaries of East Asia would make the security situation around Korea unstable if US troop withdrawal created a power vacuum. Unified Korea would not be strong enough on its own to change the power structure in the absence of US troops, but if Korea sided with either Japan or China the regional security structure would change. Given how South (and North) Korea views China and Japan, they could potentially side with either country: South Korea has some distrust of Japan but a more working relationship with China and North Korea sides with its "Communist brother" China. Haselden says that the Koreas would resemble South Korea once unified because of the very obvious failure of North Korea, but he doesn't say whether Korea would side with Japan or China. He does say that "Korea's long mutual border, increased economic and political ties, and historical bond with China may lead to a stronger relationship with China, rather than Japan." (pg. 3).

I still am not entirely sure why South Korea would want reunification. I understand the concepts of Pan-Korean nationalism and anti-Great Power-ism, and even how the generation gaps plays into the equation but I'm not sure if all those factors add up to more than economic forces. North Korea's economy is so awful and South Korea's is quite good, so it seems to me like South Korea would be sacrificing prosperity and growth for cultural unity. I think I need to look more into this issue, maybe even do my paper on South Korea somehow, because I want to understand the culture/economy pieces of the Korean reunification issue.