Category: US-ROK Alliance

The U.S. installing this radar on Ieodo will only further validate the ROK’s claim to the submerged islet:

The Republic of Korea Navy’s 7,600-ton Aegis destroyer Yulgok Yi I patrols the waters around Ieodo, an underwater reef and home to a Korean ocean research station south of Jeju Island, in this file photo from Dec. 3, 2013, in the wake of China’s declaration of a new air defense identification zone that includes it. Yonhap

A U.S. Special Operations Command official identified a Korean research group as a potential partner for a grant to install a powerful maritime radar in the waters southwest of Jeju Island around Ieodo, a submerged reef where Korea has maintained a science station to monitor the seas.

The suggestion came after China was found setting up structures in the West Sea, where Ieodo is located and where the two countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) overlap. (…….)

The offer comes as tensions sharpen over Ieodo, a submerged reef known in China as Suyan Rock, where Korea has operated Ieodo Ocean Research Station since 2003, monitoring oceanographic and atmospheric conditions and transmitting observations in real time. The site lies in waters controlled by Seoul but within the overlapping EEZs of both Korea and China. 

For Washington, expanding surveillance would help track China’s increasingly assertive naval and coast guard patrols, and push allies to share intelligence in the region more closely.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This working group should have been established long ago to address Korean visa concerns instead of trying to game the system which led to detainment of hundreds of Koreans earlier this month:

South Korea and the United States will launch a working group this week to improve the visa system for Korean workers after the detention and release of more than 300 South Koreans in a recent U.S. immigration raid, diplomatic sources said Sunday.

The two nations will hold the inaugural meeting of the working group in Washington on Tuesday (local time), the sources said, weeks after the Georgia raid on South Korean workers.

In early September, more than 300 South Korean workers at a factory construction site in Georgia were detained for a week over unclear violations of visa rules. They were released after diplomatic negotiations.

Seoul’s foreign ministry and the U.S. State Department will lead the working group, the sources said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Commerce Department are also believed to be taking part in the group.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I will believe this when I see it because the transfer of operational control has been discussed for decades now and still hasn’t happened:

Seoul is seeking to reclaim wartime control of its military from the U.S.-led U.N. Command in a move that would close a chapter of the three-year Korean War. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s administration will try to meet the criteria that would allow Seoul to finally retake control of its forces in the event of a war, according to a list of government goals released by South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. South Korea’s alliance with the United States will become a “future-oriented” strategic partnership alongside a “firm and mature” relationship with Japan, the list states.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but as has been reported before the goal to retake OPCON is by 2030 which is afte the Lee presidency ends. This means a new president could just end the OPCON transfer like has happened before.

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.