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A welcome ceremony is held for US President Donald Trump and President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea as they arrive on the Gyeongju Nationwide Museum’s latest addition forward of their bilateral summit on Oct. 29, 2025. (Kim Tae-hyeong/Hankyoreh)
By Park Hyun, editorial author
Latest remarks by Evan Medeiros, the White Home senior director for Asian affairs in the course of the Barack Obama administration and present professor at Georgetown College, provide frank perception into America’s view of Korea-US relations.
Medeiros’ feedback got here at a Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research discussion board assessing President Donald Trump’s go to to Asia. One level of rivalry was how lengthy allies similar to Korea and Japan would stay affected person within the face of extreme US calls for in tariff negotiations, at which level Medeiros acknowledged the elephant within the room that Individuals will not be eager to debate overtly.
“The explanation you’re seeing such extraordinary lodging, prostration — lighting up the Tokyo Tower in purple, white and blue, these expansive commitments to spend money on the USA [. . .] — is just because there isn’t a plan B,” he mentioned.
The gist of Medeiros’ comment is that Korea and Japan are finally powerless to withstand US calls for as a consequence of their excessive stage of reliance on America within the fields of safety, commerce, know-how and finance.
I felt prickles on my neck after I heard this. It was not solely proper on the mark with regard to Korea-US relations, but in addition took me again to an incident that occurred after I was a overseas correspondent in 2015. One challenge that stirred nice controversy throughout Medeiros’ tenure as the highest White Home adviser for Asia was the deployment of the THAAD missile protection system to South Korea.
On the time, all White Home and State Division officers have been fast to agree that the deployment of THAAD was merely for defensive functions in opposition to North Korea and that the difficulty “finally got here right down to Korea’s alternative.”
However on the identical time, there was an unstated stress utilized. After listening to how Medeiros actually feels, it’s clear that the US additionally determined to put on the stress again then after figuring out that Korea didn’t have a plan B. Korea later needed to pay a heavy value as a consequence of China’s retaliatory measures.
Wanting on the current bilateral tariff negotiations has made me rethink the state of Korea-US relations. I had hoped that Korea’s enhanced nationwide standing would regularly shift the alliance from a one-sided relationship to 1 characterised by elevated autonomy and independence. Nevertheless, within the cynical world of worldwide relations the place energy is king, these hopes turned out to be nothing greater than a pipe dream.
The response of Korean authorities officers to the US$350 billion bill despatched to us by the US is straightforward frequent sense. “I heard {that a} doc from the US had arrived [on Aug. 2] so I requested what it was about and so they mentioned it ‘made the Eulsa Treaty appear to be nothing as compared’ and that it was ‘actually full of nonsense,’” mentioned the presidential workplace’s coverage director, Kim Younger-beom. The Eulsa Treaty, generally referred to in English because the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905, made Korea a protectorate underneath Imperial Japan and set the stage for colonization.
The preliminary draft from the US even reportedly contained the expression “Failure to uphold [this agreement] will result in confiscation.” This was a menace to confiscate all funds that Korea had invested within the US. When requested whether or not sure provisions within the MOU have been unfair, Minister of Commerce and Business Kim Jung-kwan appropriately quipped, “Do you assume there’s something honest in right here in any respect?”
The issue is that Trump and his ilk have a totally totally different mind-set. They view America’s provision of a safety umbrella as a one-sided present and the US commerce deficit as one thing that robs the US of its wealth.
Regardless of having loved huge advantages as a world energy, the US now claims it has been exploited all alongside. Trump’s remark that US allies are worse than its enemies and the usage of the phrase “confiscation” ought to Korea fail to adjust to the settlement each stem from this angle. It’s comprehensible to ask allies to bear a bigger portion of prices within the context of US hegemonic competitors with China, however violently shoving unreasonable payments in Korea’s face in the best way an empire would deal with a vassal state is difficult to simply accept.
The background to Trump’s capability to behave so tyrannically is that, as Medeiros said, the US believes Korea doesn’t have a plan B. Korea is closely reliant on the US economically, and greater than 60 years have handed since wartime operational management was handed over to Washington. Korea is the one nation on the planet to have ceded this stage of navy sovereignty.
Wanting on the winners and losers in US tariff negotiations thus far, the important thing seems to be which nations have sturdy leverage that may be utilized as bargaining chips. China is combating with uncommon earth metals, whereas the EU is discussing the opportunity of retaliatory tariffs and has agreed to a compromise with imprecise guarantees of company funding within the US. The best burden has fallen on the nations with the weakest leverage: Korea and Japan.
After all, there’s nonetheless potential for Korea to see advantages sooner or later. At a time when Korea should compete with China in core industries, it could be doable to grab the chance to improve our know-how by means of better financial cooperation with a rustic that possesses supply applied sciences.
Nevertheless, the burden to bear is way too nice and the circumstances too brutal to talk of such alternatives now or consolation ourselves by saying that we acquired a greater deal than Japan. As well as, Trump’s capricious and opaque character signifies that doubt stays as as to if this funding might be carried out as stipulated within the MOU, and one other invoice may arrive at any time.
Having a plan B is crucial for weathering the storm and finally succeeding in negotiations with a stronger energy. This dilemma will proceed to current itself within the new worldwide order, the place the regulation of the jungle reigns supreme.
On the navy entrance, President Lee Jae Myung should at the very least safe the return of wartime operational management by the tip of his time period. And for the economic system, Korea must nurture strategic industries that can be utilized as leverage in a fashion akin to the shipbuilding business. Additional humiliation of this nature can be unthinkable.
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
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