From the Peace Treaty to What?

     Suppose the terms of the Peace Treaty are agreed to, who are going to sign it?  By definition the US and North Korea to begin with.  What about China?  It was not China as the state, that is the PRC, that signed the Ceasefire.  But China cannot be outside.  And Russia, and Japan.  And of course South Korea, even though it did not sign the Ceasefire either.  All the countries composing the Six-party Conference should be the participants.  Then what?  What sort of organization should be built upon the terms of the Treaty?  It would be desirable to describe them in the Treaty itself.  It should be something like, say, NATO?  Oh, no.  It should be, if we are to select something out of the existing ones at present, much more like ASEAN.

     But here opinions will get divided, and very sharply.  It will be on the US forces now in the Far East.  What will happen to them?  At the moment, 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea.  19,200 of them are the Army, mostly the Second Division.  They are usually not on move, but are stationed there to be ready to fight on the spot itself.  After the Treaty, are they still needed there, to fight the DPRK Army?

     Similarly 47,050 US troops are in Japan.  A great difference is that 20,700 of them are Marines, mostly the Third Marines Division.  They are not there to defend Okinawa, their major bases, or Japan as a whole.  They are there as a stepping stone, always ready to move elsewhere to fight whoever is the enemy.  After the Treaty are they still needed there, for jumping to somewhere else?  For my answer see tomorrow.