Tag: US-ROK Alliance

As I have long said, I did not expect a cost sharing deal to get done before the April 15th Korean parliamentary elections and it appears that will be the case:

U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected South Korea’s offer to raise its contribution to shared defense costs by at least 13 percent, a news report said Friday.

Trump made the decision last week after consultations with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Reuters said, quoting unidentified current and former U.S. officials.

Esper made a phone call to South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo earlier this week to press Seoul to quickly agree to much higher contributions, it said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but politically there was no way the ruling party would agree to a major increase in defense spending. By the Trump administration turning down the modest increase, the Moon administration can go into the election saying they tried, but the Trump administration is too greedy and that is why all you Korean employees that work on U.S. bases are laid off.

The next decision by the Moon administration will be if they want to wait until after the U.S. Presidential election to make a deal.

Previous reporting has said the US and the ROK are close to a new cost sharing deal, but it has not been reached soon enough to stop the furlough of thousands of Korean employees:

Following months of warnings, the U.S. military put 4,500 South Korean base employees — about half its local workforce — on unpaid leave indefinitely Wednesday after the allies failed to agree on a new defense cost-sharing deal.

The furlough — the first of its kind — was a blow to the alliance and joint military readiness to fight on the divided peninsula, which commanders say already has been jeopardized by restrictions on movement aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I wonder if the coronavirus test kits that South Korea has agreed to send to the U.S. had any bearing on the ongoing US-ROK cost sharing negotiations:

U.S. and South Korea are close to reaching a defense cost-sharing deal, a negotiator said Tuesday in Seoul on the eve of American military plans to put half of its local work force on unpaid leave.

U.S. Forces Korea was able to keep about 4,500 South Korean employees determined to be essential for maintaining “life, health, safety and minimum readiness.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the US-ROK cost sharing negotiations:

The latest push from Washington came Wednesday, after the Defense Department hinted that the cost-sharing agreement might be high on the agenda, if not the highest, in the upcoming Feb. 24 meeting between Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper.

“We’ve got to work through the agreement for funding of forces, so that will obviously be a topic we will discuss,” Jonathan Hoffman, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, said in a press briefing. “He’s looking forward to this meeting next week.”

When asked about the holding of joint military exercises this spring, Hoffman said he had nothing to say on the matter, which some observers say indicates the U.S. is prioritizing the cost-sharing issue in the upcoming meeting above all other matters.

Washington pressured Seoul further during the press briefing by giving details on a plan to potentially furlough 9,000 Korean workers on USFK bases.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I continue to believe that nothing will get done on this until after April’s parliamentary elections. The Moon administration knows they are going to end up paying more and likely don’t want to give in on this issue until after the elections. If this is the case than the Korean workers on U.S. bases will be furloughed.

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.