Category: US-ROK Alliance

I doubt we will ever know, but it would interesting to see how much money is in fact saved with the changes to the joint exercise schedule?:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he doesn’t want military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea because they are expensive and unhelpful for diplomacy with North Korea.
Trump made the remark on Twitter a day after the allies announced an end to two major combined exercises — Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.
“The reason I do not want military drills with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. for which we are not reimbursed,” Trump tweeted. “That was my position long before I became President. Also, reducing tensions with North Korea at this time is a good thing!”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

From one who served in Korea:
US & ROK forces are interdependent. We provide the logistics & firepower, they provide the infantry. If we don't train together, we can't work together or protect each other. This endangers South Korea's security & the safety of our troops. https://t.co/SEIRdB3pZX

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) March 2, 2019

I guess someone must have realized how lame renaming Key Resolve to the “19-1 Exercise” was and have instead now named it the “Dong Maeng” exercise:

South Korea and the United States will launch the new Dong Maeng combined exercise this week to replace their springtime Key Resolve drills, their militaries announced Sunday.
Seoul’s Joint chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) said that the nine-day command post exercise kicks off on Monday, two days after the allies’ defense chiefs decided to end the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle maneuvers to back diplomacy for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“Dong Maeng, which means alliance in English, has been modified from the previously held spring exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle and will focus on strategic, operational and tactical aspects of general military operations on the Korean Peninsula,” they said in a joint press release.
Seoul’s JCS Chairman Gen. Park Han-ki and CFC Commander Gen. Robert Abrams jointly said that the upcoming exercise is important for professional armies to train and maintain “a standard of readiness.”
“These exercises are crucial in sustaining and strengthening the alliance,” they were quoted as saying.
With the Key Resolve effectively supplanted by the new exercise, the allies are expected to conduct low-key battalion-or lower-level drills in place of the Foal Eagle field training throughout the year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Dong Maeng exercise appears to be the Key Resolve, but just under a different name and less fanfare.

I wonder if President Trump is given briefing notes to review before he talks because this is a big difference in numbers he misstated:

U.S. President Donald Trump said South Korea’s payment for the U.S. troop presence will increase further only days after both sides signed a one-year deal for the defense cost sharing. 

“Working with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, they (South Korea) agreed to pay, yesterday, $500 million (560 billion) more toward their defense,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday (local time).

On Sunday, Seoul and Washington signed the one-year provisional deal on defense cost sharing, called the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) for the upkeep of United States Forces Korea (USFK).

Under the 2019 SMA, the South will pay 1.04 trillion won toward the upkeep of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops here, up 8.2 percent from the previous year. This is an increase of 78.7 billion won, compared with last year, not the amount stated by Trump.

It remains unclear why the U.S. president made the remark with such an obviously factual error. But it is highly likely that he overstated the amount to score a political point there and raise his approval rating.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the next US-ROK military exercise will be delayed:

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency says the decision by South Korea and the U.S. to delay their announcement on joint military drill plans to after the North Korea-U.S. summit is in consideration of Pyongyang.

The report said Saturday the postponement appears to have considered North Korea’s possible reaction to the joint drills ahead of its summit with Washington.

It noted the regime has criticized South Korea-U.S. exercises as rehearsals for invading the North.

Xinhua said the decision to delay the announcement likely reflects the belief that ongoing working-level negotiations between the North and the U.S. may be affected.

The report added that at the time of the first North Korea-U.S. summit last year, Seoul and Washington also pushed back their joint drills to after the summit meeting. 

KBS World Radio

This poll shows why the Moon administration feels it can play hardball with the US in regards to increasing the funding for USFK, it is a popular opinion to do so:

In a poll fielded in South Korea in late January by RealMeter, a majority of South Koreans (59%) oppose accommodating US demands on increased burden sharing support (26% are in favor). It is especially notable that there are virtually no significant divides across demographic groups. Pluralities—and majorities in most cases—of all ages, regions, ideological leanings, and party affiliations are in opposition to Seoul giving in to US demands. The lone outlier are supporters of Liberty Party Korea, the main conservative opposition party. Even there, 45 percent support giving in to US demands versus 39 percent who oppose.

The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs

You can read more at the link, but even threatening to withdraw US troops does little to impact the numbers. This leads me to believe that Koreans do not believe that President Trump would actually pull out troops.

I would be interested to see what the poll numbers would be if Koreans were asked what is more important, paying more to Kim Jong-un or the US-ROK alliance?

"The Moon administration…denying the legitimacy of its own nation & bringing down liberal democracy under the cloak of “inter-Korean collaboration” initiated by the unreliable Pyongyang regime."
"We should spend money…for the ROK-U.S. alliance rather than for the NK regime" https://t.co/1lZoV6bGsA

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) February 3, 2019

If this report is accurate it appears the ROK government has once again gotten what they wanted from the US-ROK cost sharing negotiations with the caveat that it is only a one year deal:

South Korea and the United States are expected to strike a deal this week on splitting the cost for the stationing of American troops here as the allies consider the need to work closely together to denuclearize North Korea, a diplomatic source said Sunday.

The U.S. will likely accept South Korea’s request for a contribution of less than US$1 billion (1.1 trillion won) in 2019.

Seoul plans to sign a one-year contract as Washington demands, according to the source.

Last year, South Korea paid around 960 billion won for the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) under a five-year deal signed in 2014.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but since this is a one year deal I would expect the Trump administration to ratchet up the pressure again for the ROK to pay $1.2 billion when negotiations begin again later this year.