If the Biden administration did ask South Korea to join the Quad forum I think it shows how little they understand the geopolitical dynamics in the region:
South Korean National Security Adviser Suh Hoon (R) converses with his US and Japanese counterparts — Jake Sullivan (C) and Shigeru Kitamura (L) — at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on April 2, 2021, in this photo provided by the South Korean Embassy in Washington. (South Korean Embassy)
South Korea’s presidential office on Sunday denied as “incorrect” a Japanese report that the United States asked Seoul to join the US-led Quad forum.
The Yomiuri Shimbun, a major Japanese daily, reported earlier in the day that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had strongly requested Seoul join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue group, also known as Quad, during a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Suh Hoon early this month.
My theory has always been that the Moon administration is making the sustainment of the THAAD base challenging in hopes that the U.S. will just remove the system itself one day:
Vehicles transport equipment to the site of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in the town of Seongju, about 220 km south of Seoul, on Feb. 25, 2021, as riot police strengthen security against a group of residents and activists opposing the installation of the missile defense system. (Yonhap)
South Korea is closely discussing with the United States ways to improve living conditions for American service members stationed on the THAAD missile defense base in the country, the defense ministry said Monday.
Ministry spokesperson Boo Seung-chan made the remarks after a recent Chosun Ilbo report that said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin strongly protested poor conditions of the base during his recent visit to Seoul, calling the neglect “unacceptable.”
“I do not confirm details of what Secretary Austin said. But there have been talks about how to ensure conditions for training of the US Forces Korea (USFK),” ministry spokesperson Boo Seung-chan told a regular briefing.
This is essentially the deal the ROK always wanted to sign with the US, but the Trump administration would not agree to:
South Korea will increase the amount if pays to support U.S. troops on the peninsula by 13.9%, the country’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday following agreement on a six-year cost-sharing deal.
South Korea will pay $1.03 billion this year, up from $910 million in 2019, to support 28,500 U.S. service members there, according to a ministry statement.
You can read more at the link, but I always said this would be an easy win for the Biden administration especially when it is a deal the ROK always wanted.
These exercises have definitely been scaled down significantly, but I guess we will see if North Korea cares or not:
South Korea and the United States will stage a major springtime combined military exercise starting this week in a scaled-back manner amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Sunday. (………)
“South Korea and the U.S. decided to conduct the springtime combined exercise from March 8 for nine days, after comprehensively taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation, the maintenance of the combat readiness posture, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace,” the JCS said in a statement.
Like I said before signing a new cost sharing deal would be a simple win for the Biden administration. The reported 13% rise allows the administration to say they were able to get the ROK to pay more when the Trump administration with their hardline tactics could not:
The United States and South Korea are just weeks away from coming together on a new cost-sharing deal for stationing 28,500 U.S. troops on the peninsula, CNN reported Wednesday.
The report, which cited five anonymous sources familiar with the discussions, said the contract taking shape is a multiyear deal that increases Seoul’s contribution by about 13%.
As expected, it appears the Biden administration is going to fast track a new cost sharing agreement with South Korea:
Jeong Eun-bo, South Korea’s top negotiator in defense cost-sharing talks with the United States, holds video talks with his U.S. counterpart, Donna Welton, at the foreign ministry in Seoul on Feb. 5. Courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yonhap
The United States is committed to quickly reaching a defense cost-sharing agreement with South Korea that will be acceptable to both and help strengthen their alliance, an official from the U.S. Department of State said Friday.
The remarks came after Seoul officials said the sides agreed to seek an early conclusion to talks on Seoul’s share of the cost in maintaining 28,500 U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula in a meeting held Friday (KST).
“We decline to comment on or confirm any specific details of our ongoing diplomatic conversations, but I can tell you that U.S. and ROK negotiators agreed to continue negotiations in the near future and are committed to expeditiously concluding an updated Special Measures Agreement (SMA) that will strengthen our alliance and our combined defense posture,” the department official told Yonhap News Agency in an emailed response to related questions.
As predicted the new U.S. Defense Secretary under President Biden, Lloyd Austin wants to get a new US-ROK cost sharing deal done quickly:
U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, answers questions during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, in Washington on Wednesday. [EPA/YONHAP]
U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, said Wednesday he would bring about an early resolution to stalled military cost-sharing negotiations with South Korea.
In a written statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Austin described the U.S. military alliance with Seoul as the “linchpin of peace and security in the region” and “among the most combined, interoperable, capable and dynamic” alliances in the world.
If confirmed, the retired four-star general said he would focus on modernizing the alliance along with others throughout the Indo-Pacific region and “seek the early conclusion of cost-sharing negotiations with South Korea as part of those efforts.”
Good luck trying to get President Moon to ever agree to this even though it makes sense from a national security perspective. The fact that Japan is part of it is just one reason why the Korean left can never agree to do this:
Ambassador Harry Harris speaks with The Korea Times at Habib House in central Seoul, Jan. 20, his last day as the top U.S. diplomat in South Korea.
Harry Harris, in his farewell to South Korea as the U.S. ambassador, expressed the hope that the Asian country will join the U.S. and its other allies to stop China’s “malign influence” although not necessarily in the form of an expanded Quad.
Harris hinted that the door still remains open for the South to join the Quad, a security coalition of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India, which he described as a “natural grouping” based on shared views and therefore can be expanded.
“I believe the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a malign influence in the region and the world,” he told The Korea Times in an exclusive interview, Jan. 20, at Habib House, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador. “And I believe that it’s important for democratic countries to call out China when China does things that are contrary to democratic, accepted rules to the world.”
![U.S. President Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Defense, retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, answers questions during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, in Washington on Wednesday. [EPA/YONHAP]](https://i0.wp.com/koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/01/21/6a26663c-0ac0-4191-b853-f36d76fb7878.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
