The United States makes an extraordinary investment of life, treasure, and risk in South Korea’s defense.
Approximately 25,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in South Korea. They include two Air Force fighter wings, elements from the Marine Corps, Navy, and Special Operations Command, and the 8th U.S. Army. Their mission is to assist South Korea in deterring and, if necessary, defeating a North Korean invasion. Their presence has preserved peace on the Korean peninsula for nearly 70 years.
But America’s investment shouldn’t come without two basic strings attached.
First, South Korea should bear a fairer share of defending itself. The U.S. continues to pay an outsize share of the costs involved in stationing so many U.S. personnel in South Korea. As Chung Min Lee observes, while Seoul spends about 2.9% of GDP on defense, that figure will likely fall as an aging population forces increased welfare spending. Top line: President Moon Jae-in has increased defense spending, but not sufficiently so.
It’s worse than that. Like the U.S. military, South Korea has blown much of its already inadequate defense account on the overrated F-35 strike fighter. Reflecting North Korea’s decrepit air force, the U.S. Air Force fighter presence in South Korea centers on F-16s rather than F-15s or F-35s (F-16s possess a superior air-to-ground combat capability).
The second problem is South Korea’s supplicant approach to dealing with China. There’s great hypocrisy in play here. While South Korea welcomes U.S. defense investments against North Korean coercion, it ignores the need for cooperation against similar coercion from China. Facing China’s effort to seize the South China Sea and subjugate global democracies in deference to its interests, South Korea continues to sing China’s praises. Moon’s foreign minister recently referred to China as one of his nation’s “closest” partners. We’ll likely see another example of this deference next week when Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visits Seoul.
It shouldn’t be this way.
While younger South Koreans are frustrated at Moon’s policy, he continues to bow before Beijing. Like Germany, South Korea accepts vast Chinese trade investments in return for ignoring China’s aggression. It’s no longer tolerable for Seoul to eat its Chinese cake at the expense of U.S. interests.
Yes, South Korea has the right to pursue whatever policies it sees fit. But so does the U.S. Washington should thus make clear to Seoul that its current defense spending and China policies are intolerable. And that America’s continued military presence in South Korea, at least at scale, is dependent on remedial action.
