earticle

영어

This paper is written to identify the perceptions of members of the 20th National Assembly in South Korea on preparedness against North Korean nuclear threat, South Korea-U.S. Alliance and Defense Reform. For this purpose, it introduces the realities of above key defense policies, analyses the survey results, which was acquired from June 23 to July 12, 2017 and draws a few conclusions from the analysis. As a result, this paper found that perceptions of the National Assembly members were not different from those of ordinary South Korean people in general, but the members seemed to feel more responsibility and have sound judgment. When it comes to nuclear preparedness, the members put more priority on dialogue and the alliance with the U.S. than military measures. They turned out to clearly recognize the importance of South Korea-U.S. alliance for the national defense. The 20th National Assembly members were almost unanimous on the unsatisfactory results of previous defense reform efforts and demanded drastic changes in the defense preparedness by providing more defense budget and transformation of military structures in higher echelons. The 20th National Assembly members demonstrated a little difference of opinions based on their party associations but did not show much difference based on their years of service. The South Korean government and military need to explain defense issues to the members actively and focus more efforts to make practical enhancements in their nuclear preparedness, alliance management and defense reform.

한국어

본 논문은 북핵 대응, 한미동맹, 국방개혁과 같은 핵심 국방정책 과제에 관하여 제20대 국회의원들이 어떤 생각을 갖고 있느냐를 분석하기 위한 목적으로 작성되었고, 2017년 6월 23일부터 7월 12일 사이에 국회의원 120명을 대상으로 보좌진을 통하여 설문한 자료를 분석한 결과이다. 분석의 결과 제20대 국회는 북핵 대응의 경우 군사적 대응책도 중요시하지만 동시에 북한과의 대화나 한미동맹을 통한 해결에 더욱 많은 비중을 두고 있었고, 한미동맹에 관해서도 그 필요성을 충분히 이해하고 있는 것으로 평가되었다. 국방개혁에 관해서는 매우 부정적으로 평가하고 있고, 예산을 증대시키거나 상부지휘구조를 개편해서라고 대대적인 변화가 필요하다고 생각하는 것으로 파악되었다. 북핵 대응이나 한미동맹에 관해서는 정당별로 다소 차이를 보였으나 국방개혁에 대해서는 일치된 견해를 드러내었다.