US officials suggested that the US would applaud the ROKN's plan, provided the South Koreans continued to operate with the US Navy and resolved their differences with Japan.
As it has expanded over the last three decades, the South Korean economy has come to depend heavily on imports and exports.
That trade is seaborne because South Korea is cut off from Asia by the demilitarized zone that splits the peninsula. Korea imports, for instance, 78 percent of its petroleum from the Middle East through the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea in Southeast Asia, which are vulnerable to pirates and terrorists.
"There is no doubt," concluded a naval officer, "that the ROK's future prosperity depends on the use of the sea. Building a naval force to defend this maritime domain is becoming a key issue in the ROK's future national security strategy."
Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.
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