Tag: US-ROK Alliance

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?

It is looking like the Trump administration’s pressure on South Korea is not only causing them to consider picking up the costs of environmental clean up for closed out U.S. bases, but buy more U.S. weapons systems as well:

In an apparent move to reduce South Korea’s financial contribution to maintaining the 28,500 United States Forces Korea troops here, the government has proposed purchasing up to $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons, officials directly involved with the issue told The Korea Times, Thursday.

“The South Korean team in the defense cost-sharing negotiations suggested a revised proposal to the United States. This included a Korea’s plan to purchase up to $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons by the end of 2020,” one official said.

“The government is seeking more inventive ways and applicable plans to reduce U.S. pressure on Seoul to pay more for defense. On a possible shopping list of U.S.-made defense products for South Korea could be advanced surveillance aircraft, along with the possible co-development of an anti-missile system between South Korean and U.S. defense contractors,” another official said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty clear that Seoul is going to end up paying more, it is just a matter of how much more are they willing to pay:

 South Korea’s top negotiator in defense cost-sharing talks with the United States has said the allies have failed to produce a concrete result in this week’s negotiations as Washington’s demand for a sharp increase in Seoul’s share remains unchanged.

Jeong Eun-bo made the remarks Thursday following the fourth round of talks in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday over how to share the cost of stationing the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea under the cost-sharing accord, called the Special Measures Agreement (SMA).

“At this point, we are in a situation where we need to continue to narrow our differences. It is not that we have reached a concrete result,” Jeong told reporters at Dulles International Airport. 

“It is right to say that the U.S. maintains its position,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.