"A Third of SK Army Cadets Consider US the Main Enemy"

News: A poll shows that 34 percent of first-year [South Korean] army cadets called the United States the main enemy of South Korea... While the majority ― or 34 percent ― picked the U.S., 33 percent said they regarded North Korea as the main enemy... In addition, according to a survey of a group of conscripted soldiers conducted by the Ministry of Defense, about 75 percent of them said they have anti-U.S. sentiment... more

This comes at an odd moment when the Lee Myong-bak administration is trying to bolster the ROK-US alliance. While the officials try to downplay these results by not revealing them right away and blaming on the "inappropriate" education in schools (while failing to mention about a half century of Cold War indoctrination in schools that preceded it), they are in line with recent public opinion polls in South Korea that indicate widespread anti-US sentiments among the broad segments of the populace, and they are indicative of changed dynamics in perceptions of South Korea's traditional alliances.