ABSTRACT
The election of Roh Moo Hyun as South Korea's new president in December 2002 marked a major turning point in South Korean politics, the future of the Republic of Korea (ROK) US alliance, and the strategic makeup of a unified Korea. Roh has to articulate his vision for a revamped Korean-American alliance that takes into account the core strategic interests of Korea and the United States while continuing to pursue inter-Korean detente. The advent of the Roh administration has resulted in the rise of a new generation of political leaders and key policy makers with little if direct recollection of the Korean conflict and the virtually uncontested acceptance of the Korean-American alliance by the political elites. Future roles and missions of the ROK-US alliance, if indeed the two countries continue to perceive a need for preserving the alliance well into the first half of the twenty-first century, can be defined on the basis of new strategic guidelines for the alliance.
