Author: GIKorea

This appears to be a way that the Korean government may try and hit back at U.S. negotiators trying to work out a new USFK cost sharing agreement:

Members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Thursday floated the idea of including South Korea’s indirect financial contributions for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) as “leverage” if Washington keeps asking Seoul to pay “excessive” costs. 

“If Washington keeps making absurd demands, South Korea will seriously reconsider the adjustment of indirect costs created by the USFK apart from defense cost-sharing,” Rep. Cho Jeong-sik, chief policymaker of the DPK, said during a party meeting, Thursday.

Underlining that U.S. President Donald Trump’s current rumored demand for Seoul to pay $5 billion for U.S. forces here is “excessive” and not written in the U.S.―South Korea Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) or the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), he added the U.S.’ demands for Korea to pay more in additional categories such as rotation of U.S. forces and off-peninsula drills are irrelevant to the defense of the Korean Peninsula.

“Korea is making large contributions in many categories directly and indirectly. For example, Korea is letting the USFK use harbors, railways and land for free. It costs 3.5 trillion won as of 2015. Seoul can [recalculate the indirect contributions] and use them as leverage,” another DPK lawmaker who is familiar with the SMA negotiations said during a phone interview with The Korea Times.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Considering all the U.S. pressure that the Moon administration has been facing from the U.S. this must be the face saving way they are attempting to maintain the GSOMIA without looking like they backed down:

 South Korea announced a decision Friday to “conditionally” suspend the expiry of a military information-sharing accord with Japan.

South Korea has also decided to temporarily halt a petition process at the World Trade Organization while negotiations with Japan on the two sides’ export control policies go on, Kim You-geun, deputy director of Cheong Wa Dae’s national security office, said at a press briefing.

He added the two sides have agreed to resume working-level talks to discuss the export controls.

It paves the way for the two sides to focus on substantive dialogue, at least for the time being, on pending bilateral issues such as compensation for wartime forced labor and the trade dispute. Depending on progress, President Moon Jae-in may hold one-on-one summit talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next month.

Seoul’s announcement was made six hours before the expiry of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), scheduled at the end of the day. 

A key condition is that South Korea can terminate GSOMIA at any time it wants and Japan has expressed “understanding” over it, Kim said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting read from ROK Drop favorite, Dr. Tara O about what North Korea calls their tactic to separate the ROK, US, and Japan from each other:

What else can North Korea do?  Focus on Japan.  It can try to weaken South Korea-Japan relations by using anti-Japan feelings among South Koreans, maintained by emphasizing historical animosity.  

Gat is a hat Korean men used to wear during the Chosun Dynasty.  It has a large brim with two strings that go around the sides of the face to tie in the middle to secure the hat in its place.   According to Kim Il-sung’s “Gat-Geun Tactic” (41:05), one string represents South Korea’s alliance with the U.S. and the other string represents South Korea’s relations with Japan.  By cutting off one string, the hat blows off.  Thus, by destroying South Korea’s relations with Japan, South Korea itself crumbles–and that is how Kim Il-sung describes the Gat-Geun Tactic, which is part of the Kim family regime’s anti-South Korea strategy.  

Kim Il-sung first used the term Gat-Geun Tactic in 1969, when he gave a speech at Kim Jong-il Political Military University, which trains espionage agents and operatives.  Kim Il-sung emphasized the tactic again in 1972 in his speech during the graduation ceremony at Kim Il Political University.

Hwang Jang-yop, the most senior North Korean figure to defect to South Korea, also said the North Korean regime is making full use of the Gat-Geun Tactic of weakening the South Korea-U.S. alliance and South Korea-Japan relations as part of its united front tactics.

East Asia Research Center

You can read more at the link.

You just knew someone was going to claim this at some point using anonymous sources:

The United States on Thursday denied a South Korean news report that it was considering withdrawing up to 4,000 troops from South Korea if it does not pay more for maintaining a 28,500-strong U.S. contingent deterring North Korean aggression.

South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the withdrawal of a U.S. brigade, typically 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers, had been discussed with the top brass of the U.S. military in South Korea, citing an unidentified diplomatic source in Washington.

The report came two days after the United States broke off defense cost talks after demanding that South Korea raise its annual contribution for maintaining the U.S. contingent to $5 billion, a South Korean official said, more than five times what it pays now, in rare discord in the alliance.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

Here is what General Milley recently told reporters about the US troop presence in South Korea:

 U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley has said the American public poses questions about why the United States should station troops in South Korea and Japan and why the Asian allies can’t pay for their own defense, according to a Pentagon account of his recent conversation with reporters.

Milley made the remark Sunday as he departed for the Indo-Pacific region, his first overseas trip since taking office in September.

He was emphasizing the importance of the U.S. alliances with South Korea and Japan, countries he will visit in the coming week.

“He said the average American looking at the forward deployed U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan ask some fundamental questions: Why are they needed there? How much does it cost? These are very rich and wealthy countries, why can’t they defend themselves?” the general was quoted as telling reporters traveling with him, according to the post on the Pentagon’s website.

“These are main street USA questions,” Milley added. “It is incumbent on us … to make sure we adequately explain how the U.S. military is a stabilizing force in Northeast Asia in preventing and deterring the outbreak of armed conflict.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This number is actually down sharply because this same institute had previously said China was responsible for about 70% of the pollution in South Korea. This makes me wonder if the ROK government is trying to down play China pollution in order to justify more stringent domestic anti-pollution measures?:

Around 32 percent of ultrafine dust in South Korea can be attributed to China, a piece of joint research by South Korea, China and Japan showed Wednesday, as fine dust pollution continues to be a regional environmental headache.

An average of 51.2 percent of ultrafine dust in South Korea comes from domestic factors and 32.1 percent and 2 percent, respectively, stem from China and Japan, according to a summary of the joint study released by South Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research.

The remaining 14.7 percent were due to other factors.

The study, the first of its kind, was conducted in major cities of the three countries, including South Korea’s Seoul, Daejeon and Busan.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but what do people think the Korean reaction would be if Japan was dumping as much air pollution over the Korean peninsula that China is?