President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump shake fingers on the Oval Workplace within the White Home, Washington, D.C., Monday. Yonhap
WASHINGTON — From commerce to safety and geopolitics, the South Korea-U.S. alliance has undergone a yr of uncertainty since U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White Home, however hard-fought bilateral offers in these areas have put it on a extra steady footing.
Trump kicked off his second, nonconsecutive time period on Jan. 20 at a time of rising questions over the longer term course of the alliance as he moved to place his America First coverage into excessive gear whereas Seoul was fighting the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial regulation bid.
His aggressive tariff coverage and requires allies to bolster their protection spending and “burden-sharing” heralded profound shifts in America’s alliances and partnerships, leaving Seoul scrambling to determine methods to navigate these adjustments within the absence of a completely elected chief following Yoon’s impeachment in December 2024 and his ouster in April.
New South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was elected in June on a promise to place the alliance with the US on the middle of his administration’s overseas coverage below his “pragmatic” diplomacy, easing hypothesis in Washington that below his management, Seoul might lean extra towards America’s strategic rival, China.
Conscious of issues over delayed summit diplomacy with Trump as a result of political transition in Seoul, Lee sought to swiftly have interaction with Trump, resulting in the primary bilateral summit on the White Home in August and the second in South Korea in late October simply forward of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation summit.
Launched in November following the 2 summits, a joint reality sheet outlining bilateral safety and commerce agreements has given a way of stability to the South Korea-U.S. relationship, however more durable duties remained: turning these offers — some missing specifics — into actuality.
The very fact sheet, the primary top-level official doc between the 2 administrations, lined a variety of agreements, together with Seoul’s dedication to investing $350 billion within the U.S., amongst different pledges, in return for Washington’s reducing of country-specific “reciprocal” tariffs on South Korea to fifteen % from 25 perce.
Regardless of months of grueling negotiations to succeed in a tariff deal, uncertainty nonetheless stays over the phrases of the settlement because the U.S. Supreme Court docket might challenge a ruling within the coming weeks concerning the legality of Trump’s use of emergency powers to justify the reciprocal tariffs.
Within the occasion of a court docket choice towards the duties, Trump is anticipated to deploy different authorized means at his disposal to take care of the identical degree of tariffs, however the Lee administration might face home stress towards its funding dedication made in trade for the tariff discount, observers stated.
Trump introduced his plans for reciprocal tariffs on April 2 — a day he referred to as “Liberation Day” — as he used import taxes to curtail America’s commerce deficits, increase income, entice overseas investments and strengthen home manufacturing.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks throughout an occasion to announce new tariffs within the Rose Backyard on the White Home, April 2, 2025, in Washington. AP-Yonhap
Commerce and funding issues apart, geopolitical coordination has been a tough challenge going through the 2 governments.
Shortly after Lee’s election, a White Home official expressed issues over “Chinese language interference and affect” in democracies world wide — a comment that apparently advised the Trump administration’s need to see Seoul preserve a distance from Beijing amid an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry.
The White Home comment got here amid hypothesis in Washington that the liberal-leaning administration in Seoul would search nearer ties with China, whereas the previous conservative Yoon authorities had targeted on strengthening bilateral and trilateral ties with Washington and Tokyo.
The Lee administration has sought to ease Washington’s geopolitical issues, underscoring that the South Korea-U.S. alliance lies on the middle of its overseas and safety coverage, whereas expressing its assist for continued trilateral cooperation with Tokyo.
Discovering an optimum coverage method towards China that doesn’t pressure ties with the U.S. stays a serious job for Seoul, because the Trump administration needs its Indo-Pacific allies and companions to coalesce round its efforts to discourage the “pacing” risk from an assertive China.
One of the embarrassing moments for the Seoul-Washington ties final yr got here in September when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers performed a raid at a Korean battery plant building website in Georgia, resulting in the detention of greater than 300 Korean employees and elevating doubts over the U.S. as a dependable funding vacation spot.
This picture from video supplied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through DVIDS reveals an individual being handcuffed on the Hyundai Motor Group’s electrical car plant, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Ellabell, Ga. AP-Yonhap
ICE officers referred to as the raid the “largest single-site enforcement operation within the historical past of Homeland Safety Investigations,” arguing that the Korean staff had been discovered to be working illegally within the U.S., together with these on short-term or leisure visas.
The employees had been launched every week after their detention, however the scene of them being arrested in shackles sparked anger and even a way of betrayal in South Korea as they had been posted there to assist Korean companies’ investments within the U.S.
Later, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau expressed deep regrets over the incident and pledged to repair the U.S. visa system. To deal with the visa challenge, Seoul and Washington established a working group, whereas the U.S. created a particular desk on the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.
On the safety entrance, one of many greatest points issues the joint undertaking to “modernize” the alliance.
The Trump administration has sought to reshape the safety partnership with South Korea in a approach that will increase Seoul’s protection spending and safety tasks, and permits U.S. forces to concentrate on broader regional threats past the Korean Peninsula, particularly these from China.
Within the context of the alliance modernization, hypothesis has continued about the potential for the U.S. broadening the operational scope of its 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) past the Korean Peninsula within the face of China’s rising assertiveness.
Observers have additionally anticipated that to assist counter Chinese language threats, the U.S. navy might strengthen Air Drive and Navy parts of USFK, and cut back its Military portion, provided that naval and aerial belongings may play a central position within the occasion of China-related contingencies.
Issues a few potential USFK troop drawdown had been strengthened as a joint communique of the bilateral protection ministerial talks in November omitted what had been a boilerplate phrase committing the U.S. to sustaining the “present” USFK troop degree.
The allies’ discussions concerning the USFK drive posture are anticipated to select up tempo after the Pentagon releases its Nationwide Protection Technique, probably within the coming weeks.
This file picture, taken March 20, 2024, reveals U.S. troops partaking in a river-crossing train in Yeoncheon, about 60 kilometers north of Seoul. Yonhap
One other main safety challenge going through the alliance has been Seoul’s push to safe nuclear-powered submarines.
Following the second summit with Lee, Trump introduced that he accredited the submarine undertaking, dismissing earlier skepticism that the U.S. would stay averse to South Korea’s pursuit of the strategic naval asset because of nuclear proliferation issues.
His approval got here amid hypothesis that Washington might depend on South Korea’s highly effective submarines to take care of Chinese language threats. The trail to getting the submarines appears to be neither fast nor simple given home U.S. procedures and different necessities.
Additionally on the crowded agenda of the allies’ safety duties was Seoul’s push to safe uranium enrichment and spent nuclear gas reprocessing capabilities for peaceable civilian functions. Within the November reality sheet, the U.S. formally expressed its assist for that effort.
Final yr, the 2 international locations additionally made progress of their discussions on the switch of wartime operational management (OPCON) to South Korea from the U.S.
Throughout their annual talks in Seoul in November, Protection Minister Ahn Gyu-back and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth agreed to develop a street map designed to “expedite” the implementation of situations for the OPCON transition, because the Lee administration seeks to retake wartime OPCON inside its five-year time period ending in 2030.
The allies have been engaged on the “conditions-based” OPCON transition. The situations embody South Korea’s capabilities to guide mixed Korea-U.S. forces, its strike and air protection capabilities, and a regional safety surroundings conducive to such a handover.
South Korea handed over operational management of its troops to the U.S.-led U.N. Command in the course of the 1950-53 Korean Warfare. It was then transferred to the 2 allies’ Mixed Forces Command when the command was launched in 1978. Wartime OPCON stays in U.S. fingers, whereas South Korea retook peacetime OPCON in 1994.
Coverage coordination to deal with North Korea’s nuclear quandary has additionally been an important challenge going through the alliance.
Each the Trump and Lee administrations have expressed hope of resuming diplomacy with Pyongyang, although the North has proven little curiosity in reengagement with both facet at a time when it has relied a lot on Moscow for meals, gas, diplomatic assist and different help.
Hypothesis has arisen that Trump could search to rekindle his private diplomacy with North Korean chief Kim Jong-un in April when he plans to go to China for a summit with Chinese language President Xi Jinping.
In the course of the first summit with Trump, Lee pledged that Seoul would function a “pacemaker” to assist Trump play a task as a “peacemaker” in diplomacy with Pyongyang.
With the allies having finished the foremost spadework to strengthen and broaden bilateral cooperation on commerce, funding, safety and different fronts, they’re anticipated to flesh out their agreements and produce them to fruition.
