Washington’s insistence that Seoul pays more for US military protection is testing the relations between the US and its Pacific ally. Unless the two sides can work out a deal both are comfortable with, this issue could be the last straw to break an already fraught relationship, said a Chinese analyst.
Under a stopgap agreement, South Korea is paying US$924 million, or about a fifth of the total costs to keep the 28,500 US troops on the Korean Peninsula. While US President Donald Trump has always been pressing his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in to pick up a larger share, media reports said he is now asking for an unprecedented fivefold increase in the amount South Korea shoulders, saying it should pay the US military US$5 billion for its defense.
“President Trump’s extortion skills are also unprecedented,” said Zhu Qin, an international relations professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Since 1991, South Korea has paid a small but increasing share for US military protection against North Korea, a country it is technically at war with. Trump’s latest demand that South Korea foot the entire bill could change the nature of the US military presence on the peninsula, said Zhu in an article on news site china.com.cn.
“Trump’s logic seems to be that US soldiers in South Korea are there to help their host country and it has nothing to do with the US, so South Korea should pay for everything,” said Zhu. “That sounds like the South Koreans are paying mercenaries.”
Whatever roles the US troops in South Korea are going to play is up to Trump, said Zhu, but the day South Korea decides it costs too much to keep them there, it could be the end of the US-South Korean alliance.
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