Destiny deferred, until now

South Korea has done an admirable job rebuilding from the Korean War, and its newfound prosperity and status is certainly worth defending. Surrounded on three sides by the sea, its economy dependent on exports, South Korea needs stable sea lanes. The country is a natural maritime power.

But for six decades the threat of a second invasion from North Korea tied up most of the South’s military resources, forcing Seoul to invest in ground forces and to a lesser extent the air force. This has no doubt frustrated those in the South who would like to realize South Korea’s maritime destiny.

But now it appears that South Korea’s naval advocates are winning the argument. Seoul has started building bigger and better ships, and its navy, by tonnage, is much bigger than that of North Korea. South Korea achieved a comfortable naval lead over the North decades ago but it still racing ahead.

The idea of South Korea as a maritime power is an eventuality. No one would deny it that. But it’s too soon.

The Dokdo islets. That’s it. That’s all there is. Wikipedia photo

Threats, real and imagined

Perhaps one of the most absurd territorial disputes between any two countries is the dispute over the South Korean islets called Dokdo. Dokdo is a tiny outcropping of rocks off the southern coast of South Korea. Claimed by both South Korea and Japan, it was occupied by South Korea in 1952. Uninhabitable due to the lack of fresh water, it is currently home to an elderly couple and a detachment of South Korean police.

South Koreans are emotionally invested in Dokdo. As a result, Seoul places an irrational amount of emphasis on protecting a minuscule amount of its territory from … Japan, of all places.

Demonstrations in South Korea supporting the island claim have in the past involved finger chopping, gut-stabbing and pheasant sacrifice. South Korean expatriates have sponsored billboards supporting the claim as far away as Dallas, Texas and Times Square in New York City.

South Korea has a complicated relationship with Japan that is alternately cordial, indifferent and downright frosty. It’s a relationship with the stain of Japan’s 40-year occupation of the Korean peninsula, for which many South Koreans believe Japan has not done enough to make amends.

The very country South Korea emulated to success is the very country it blames for leading it to the brink of national extinction. Tension generated by this relationship manifests as nationalism.

Seoul is worried that Japan will try to wrest Dokdo away by force. Yes, South Korea believes the avowedly pacifist country, with armed forces one-eleventh the size of the South Korean military, may suddenly risk international outrage and 70 years of peace to secure a handful of useless rocks.

South Korea even practices to defend Dokdo from attack. In June, the armed forces held a one-day exercise involving 10 ships and the country’s top-of-the-line F-15K fighter jets. The same exercise is usually held once or twice a year.

The Dokdo amphibious ship and its planned sister vessels is really not very useful against North Korea. The number of troops it could land is a pittance compared to the overall size of the North Korean military, and for operations in the string of islands near the demilitarized border helicopters are ideal.

But if you’re a South Korean defense planner and you’re worried that Japan may try to take the Dokdo islets, the ships are very useful.