Category: US-ROK Alliance

The Lee administration is still playing the victim card over the detainment of the South Korean illegal immmigrants and the State Department is playing right into this narrative:

A senior U.S. state department official on Sunday expressed regrets over the recent mass detention of South Korean workers in America and vowed to prevent similar occurrences.

Christopher Landau, deputy secretary of state, visited Seoul for a meeting with South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo.

According to Seoul’s foreign ministry, Landau conveyed his deep regrets over the detention of hundreds of South Korean workers in an immigration crackdown earlier this month at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Bryan County, Georgia. A total of 316 South Korean workers returned home Friday, after being held in a detention center for a week.

Landau also said U.S. President Donald Trump has a keen interest in the matter and ensured that those who have returned home will not face any disadvantages when reentering the United States. The state department official said Washington would try to ensure there would be no further incidents of a similar nature in the future.

Landau proposed working-level talks on issuing proper visas for South Korean workers in the U.S., citing a need to provide institutional support for South Korean corporations’ investments that contribute to the American economy and manufacturing.

In response, Park touched upon inconveniences that South Korean workers faced while in detention and said the general public in South Korea, in addition to the workers themselves, felt deeply shocked by the crackdown.

According to the ministry, Park also strongly urged the U.S. to take practical steps and implement systematic improvements to ease South Korean people’s concerns.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the message Landau should have matched what U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick recently said that the U.S. wants Korean business, just come in on a proper visa. If you are having problems let us know and we will resolve it. Instead this “regret” wording just feeds into the victim narrative the Lee administration is promoting.

It would be interesting to learn what part of the trade deal that President Lee was trying to renegotiate:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Seoul and Washington agreed to keep last month’s bilateral trade deal unchanged though there was a “problem,” as he held summit talks with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington the previous day.

Trump made the remarks during a Cabinet meeting, while touting a series of agreements that his administration has reached with countries to reduce America’s trade deficits and boost federal coffers.

“I heard there was a problem with South Korea, but we met yesterday, and they are done. We didn’t do it. We just kept the same deal. He honored the deal,” he said.

“They wanted to see if … well, I don’t even want to say it, but they wanted to see if they could do something. But they honored the deal, which is nice,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If President Lee wants to stay on the good side of President Trump he should see what he can do to set up a meeting with Kim Jong-un:

 U.S. President Donald Trump indicated his willingness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before the end of the year, raising the possibility of a meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in South Korea later this year.

During his first summit with President Lee Jae Myung at the White House, Monday, Trump was asked by reporters whether he planned to meet the North Korean leader again. He responded that he hoped to do so, emphasizing that he “gets along great with him.”

“I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong-un in the appropriate future,” the U.S. president said.

Regarding the upcoming APEC Summit scheduled for the end of October in Gyeongju, South Korea, Trump said he’d love to come for the summit.

When presented with the possibility of meeting both Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC event, Trump described the idea as “interesting,” although he acknowledged it could be difficult to arrange.

“That’d be interesting. We’ll arrange a meeting between you and Kim Jong-un. Would you like that? I don’t know. That’s a very tough question right now. I don’t know where that question is leading. Anyway, look, I get along great with Kim Jong-un and whatever I can do, having to do with South Korea and getting people together, you should get together,” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Kim Jong-un would never travel to South Korea for a summit because domestically it would like he is being subservient to the U.S. and South Korea. What Trump might be able to do is a meeting at Panmunjom with Kim Jong-un like he has did previously where they look of equal standing. Optics are very important to the Kim regime.

It is interesting that President Trump actually noticed all the people from the prior South Korean government getting prosecuted. I wonder if he realizes this is largely what the Korean left does when they get in power, they prosecute prior conservative administrations for things real and imagined:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday there seems to be something like a “purge or revolution” in South Korea, and that the United States cannot have such a thing and “do business there,” as he is set to have a summit with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on the day.

Trump made the remarks in a social media post, as former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been detained over his botched martial law bid in December.

“WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“We can’t have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think anyone expected Trump to say this during his summit with Korean President Lee:

U.S. President Donald Trump caused a stir during his first summit with President Lee Jae Myung on Monday by suggesting that Washington could seek ownership of land used for American bases in Korea. This remark, made at the White House, marked a sharp break from the agreement that has long governed the U.S. military on the peninsula for decades.

When asked whether he would consider reducing the number of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, Trump declined to provide a direct answer. 

“Well, I don’t want to say that now, because we’ve been friends and we’re friends,” he told reporters. He then moved on to the issue of bases, adding, “They would say, ‘but we gave you land.’ I said, ‘no, you didn’t. You lease us land.’ There’s a big difference between giving and leasing. Maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the way it works right now is that after the U.S. military closes a base in South Korea the land is given back to the government as is. This seems to be a negotiating tactic by Trump to try and get a better cost sharing deal with South Korea.

Does anyone really believe heat is what caused the downsize of UFS or the Lee administration trying to play nice with North Korea?:

South Korea and the United States began their annual large-scale military exercise Monday, with all eyes on whether North Korea will respond with warnings or provocations.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which aims to strengthen combined defense readiness against potential threats, particularly from North Korea, will be carried out for 11 days and concludes on Aug. 28.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said this year’s exercise would be held on a scale similar to last year’s, with about 18,000 South Korean troops taking part. The level of US participation is expected to be similar, though neither the JCS nor US Forces Korea disclosed an exact figure of the US troops.

Throughout the 11 days, troops will participate in both live and computer-simulated command post exercises and field training exercises (FTX). However, of the roughly 40 FTXs planned for this year, about half, or 20, have been postponed until September.

The JCS cited extreme heat, the need to ensure training safety and efforts to maintain a balanced combined defense posture throughout the year as reasons behind the postponement.

However, observers believe the postponement of some exercises is aligned with the Lee Jae Myung administration’s gestures for an inter-Korean thaw. The decision was made after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s influential sister Kim Yo-jong criticized the exercises, saying they have “no interest” in reviving talks with Seoul, in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s state media in July.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime was not impressed by the downsized UFS.

Notice that the goal to turn over OPCON to the ROK is well after President Trump leaves office which leaves door open for a new administration to delay it once again. The ROK has been saying decades now how they want wartime OPCON and then it always ends up being delayed. I guess in five years we will see what happens this time:

The Lee Jae Myung administration will seek to reclaim wartime operational control (OPCON) of the military from the U.S. within the next five years, establishing the goal as a key part of its foreign and security policy, according to its five-year policy road map announced Wednesday. 

The blueprint links this initiative to a broader strategy of pragmatic diplomacy and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, as well as to strengthening the country’s defense industry to enable it to become one of the world’s top four arms exporters.

The goals were announced by the State Affairs Planning Committee, a de facto transition team for the Lee administration following the snap election resulting from former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I think support for the operational flexibility for USFK will be a major outcome from this summit:

President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold their first summit in Washington on Aug. 25 to discuss ways to bolster the two nations’ alliance and cooperation in advanced industries, the presidential office said Tuesday.

Lee will depart for a three-day visit to the United States on Aug. 24, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung told reporters, marking his first visit to the U.S. since he took office in early June.

“The two leaders plan to discuss ways to develop the Korea-U.S. alliance into a future-oriented, comprehensive strategic alliance in response to the changing international security and economic environment,” Kang said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It appears the Washington Post is trying to make a scandal out of something that is called negotiating:

Officials of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration considered demanding that South Korea raise its defense spending to 3.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) during tariff negotiations, a news report said Saturday, citing internal U.S. government documents.

U.S. officials also weighed the idea of requiring South Korea to publicly support operational flexibility of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to better deter China, The Washington Post reported, though it is not clear whether their suggestions were actually discussed in the negotiations with South Korea that were concluded last month.

The documents indicated that the Trump’s administration might intend to use tariffs to help achieve a range of national security goals beyond its stated objective to reduce America’s trade deficits and boost domestic manufacturing, the newspaper noted.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.