Tag: US-ROK Alliance

Here is something else THAAD related that will rile up leftists in South Korea:

Korean officials Friday denied that they have discussed with Washington construction fees for a base in Korea housing the U.S.-led Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) antimissile system, contradicting a 2021 U.S. Army budget proposal suggesting that the multi-million dollar budget will be covered by Korea.

The denials came in response to local media reports earlier yesterday saying that the U.S. Department of Army’s proposed budget for the 2021 fiscal year showed $49 million would be used for construction on the Thaad site in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang.

In the proposed budget, the U.S. Army described the article as “Korea funded construction,” implying that Seoul would pay. Of the total amount, $37 million was set aside for site security, lighting and weapons storage, while about $7 million was earmarked for electricity, sewers and road works.  

The budget also stated that Washington would allocate $1 billion for enhancing Thaad systems around the world, stoking fears here that the United States might pressure Seoul to partially cover some of those fees as well.

The U.S. budget proposal raised red flags in Korea because the allies agreed in 2017 – when parts for the antimissile system arrived in Seongju amid a major backlash from local residents – that Seoul would provide the land for housing Thaad, while Washington covered other costs of deployment.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but why don’t the leftists get this worked up about the Patriot missile batteries spread out all around South Korea? I already explained the answer to that one at this link.

It will be interesting to see if the Moon administration will possibly delay the turn over of OPCON responsibilities due to the scale down of joint military exercises:

Seoul is in a dilemma over annual military exercises with Washington, trying to balance diplomacy with Pyongyang while staying on track for the transfer of wartime operational control (Opcon).  

President Moon Jae-in pledged since he took office in 2017 that the transfer of Opcon from Washington to Seoul should take place within his five-year term, and to carry this out, stable and regular joint military drills need to be conducted.  

However, those combined military exercises don’t help denuclearization negotiations with Pyongyang. Major Seoul-Washington exercises have been postponed, suspended or scaled down for the sake of diplomacy with the North since early 2018.  

Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense gave a briefing to Moon on Tuesday at the Gyeryongdae military complex in South Chungcheong on its comprehensive policy plan for this year. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the transfer of OPCON is such a political goal for the Moon administration, I think it will be hard for them to delay it.

This is a great way for the Moon administration to make it appear they are contributing to the international coalition defending the Strait of Hormuz when in reality they just added a liaison officer:

South Korea’s decision to send troops to the tense Strait of Hormuz for “independent” naval operations drove home its desire to cement alliance cooperation with the United States and avoid straining ties with its trade partner, Iran, analysts said Tuesday.

Capping monthslong deliberations that pitted security cooperation with Washington against economic relations with Tehran, Seoul announced it would temporarily expand areas of operations for its anti-piracy Cheonghae unit to cover the passageway off Iran.

The naval unit, now stationed in the Gulf of Aden, will operate independently of the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC), a U.S.-led military coalition to safeguard freedom of navigation in the waterway, though it would cooperate with the coalition if need be. Two South Korean liaison officers will be dispatched to the IMSC.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but basically the ROK ship on anti-piracy duty in the Gulf of Aden can be asked by the US coalition for help through a ROK liaison officer that is deployed to assist them.

This is not a surprise considering the North Koreans have been so far this year behaving:

South Korea and the United States will modify their springtime combined exercises in order to support diplomatic efforts to denuclearize North Korea, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

Since the nuclear negotiating process began in 2018, the South and the U.S. have either scaled back or made other modifications to joint military drills in an effort to avoid provoking Pyongyang that has long denounced such maneuvers as a rehearsal for invasion.

“We’ve been smoothly preparing for planned combined drills,” a senior ministry official said. “If diplomatic efforts are under way, we will conduct (the drills) within the bounds to be agreed upon between the South and the U.S.”

The stance was part of the ministry’s comprehensive policy plan for the new year, which Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo reported to President Moon Jae-in at the Gyeryongdae military headquarters in the South Chungcheong Province in the day.

In line with the policy, the two countries are expected to replace their usual large-scale springtime exercise, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle maneuvers, with a computer-simulated command post exercise (CPX), called Dong Maeng, just as they did last year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Dong Maeng means “alliance” in English and it is what they replaced the UFL exercise with last summer. It looks like Key Resolve is going to use the same name. Even with the downsized exercise and name change the North Koreans still complained about it last year.

This is really nothing new on the U.S. President’s part; he has been very consistent on South Korea paying more for the upkeep of the US-ROK alliance. The only question at this point is how much is the increase going to be?:

U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly increased pressure on South Korea to pay more for the upkeep of 28,500 United States Forces Korea (USFK), ahead of the next round of negotiations for the ongoing defense cost-sharing talks scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C., Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA) ― as the talks are called ― between Washington and Seoul began in September last year for this year’s defense cost-sharing, but its year-end deadline has passed with the countries failing to narrow their differences. 

“These rich countries have to pay for it. South Korea gave us $500 million,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News, Friday (local time). “They’re a wealthy country. They build all your television sets, they took that away from us, they build ships, they build a lot of things. I said we’re protecting and you’ve got to pay. They paid us $500 million; they’re going to pay us a lot more.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The other question that needs to be asked is if the Moon Jae-in administration wants to restart major bilateral exercises:

The United States will consider resuming military exercises with South Korea that have been suspended depending on North Korea’s next move, the Pentagon chief has said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper made the comment in an interview with MSNBC Thursday after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened in a New Year’s message to soon showcase a “new strategic weapon.”

Experts have said the strategic weapon could be an intercontinental ballistic missile intended to pressure the U.S. to make concessions in the two countries’ stalled denuclearization talks.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Ambassador Harris says that USFK will not be withdrawn as a result of the ongoing cost sharing negotiations or any deal with North Korea:

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris, like his predecessors, reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the bilateral alliance and the presence of American troops in the South irrespective of the situation.

His reaffirmation, however, seems more meaningful now because it comes amid concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump is using a half-century-old alliance as a bargaining chip and that the alliance is unraveling.

“American forces are here to stay … It’s not an American decision, not a Korean decision — it’s an alliance decision like many of the decisions we have taken in the past years and decades,” Harris said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at the U.S. Embassy in downtown Seoul last week. (………..)

Against this backdrop, Harris said, “There is no contemplation of U.S. forces leaving the Korean Peninsula, either as an outcome of Special Measures Agreement discussions or as an outcome of relationships with North Korea.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

People following this issue without preconceived biases knew the US-ROK cost sharing deal was not going to be $5 billion a year and was instead a negotiating tactic. Well it appears to have worked as the ROK is reportedly agreeing to a 10-20% increase in funding on top of the billion dollars of increased weapons purchases:

The U.S. and Korea narrowed differences significantly in the latest round of defense cost-sharing talks as the U.S. stepped back from demands for an exorbitant five-fold hike in Korea’s contribution, sources said Wednesday. 

But Washington is still demanding an expanded contribution from Seoul, which already pays more proportionally than any other U.S. ally for keeping 28,500 American troops here. 

“The two sides began narrowing their differences and moved toward a smaller increase in defense cost-sharing,” a diplomatic source said. 

The final agreement is not expected until February, two months past the expiry of the current agreement. 

The American negotiators took into account the views of several senior U.S. lawmakers that a $5 billion bill would be excessive. Instead, the two sides are likely to agree on a 10 to 20 percent hike in South Korea’s contribution and a hefty sweetener in arms purchases from the U.S., other sources said.

Chosun Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

As I have been saying the U.S. was never going to get $5 billion from the ROK and they likely knew this, to pressure them in other areas such as increased weapons purchases and environmental clean up costs:

The top U.S. negotiator in defense cost-sharing talks with South Korea said Wednesday that his team is “not focused on” its initial demand for a five-fold increase to US$5 billion in Seoul’s financial contributions to the upkeep of American troops here.

In an interview with the Korean press corps, James DeHart also pointed out that South Korea’s weapons purchases from the United States are an “important consideration for us in the burden-sharing context.”

DeHart and his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Eun-bo, held the latest round of two-day negotiations in Seoul this week but failed to narrow the gaps over how much Seoul should pay next year and beyond for the stationing of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).

“I do want to say, very importantly, there have been some big figures that have been repeated many times in the Korean media, and those figures do not reflect where we are in our discussions with the ROK today,” he said. ROK stands for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if the Trump administration gets a $1 billion extra in weapons purchases and Seoul to fold on environmental clean up demands of closed out US bases will the critics give credit to Trump?