Trump's Defense Cost 'Stubbornness', North Korea Attempts to Exploit ROK-US Rift... Concerns Over ROK-US Alliance

Christopher Hill Former Deputy Assistant Secretary Claims...Ruling Party Turns Arrow to Korea-US Working Group, Conflict Escalates

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Amid North Korea's continuous hardline actions, concerns over the South Korea-US alliance are growing. In addition to the assessment that US President Donald Trump's obstinate pressure for a significant increase in defense cost-sharing is weakening South Korea-US cooperation, there are claims that North Korea is attempting to induce a rift between the two by strongly criticizing the South for failing to implement recent inter-Korean and North Korea-US agreements.

Moreover, as the South Korea-US Working Group, which began operations in November 2018, has effectively failed to fulfill its role, some within the ruling party are pointing to the Working Group as a cause of the breakdown in inter-Korean relations, further escalating the conflict.

Christopher Hill, former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and chief negotiator for the Six-Party Talks, spoke out about the much-concerned South Korea-US alliance. On the 15th (local time), during a virtual seminar titled 'Advice from Negotiators: Next Steps on North Korea' hosted by the think tank International Crisis Group (ICG), Hill stated, “North Korea's actions over the past two weeks appear to be an attempt to see how far apart South Korea and the US are,” adding, “I see this as a kind of test of the alliance.” This was an analysis of North Korea's hardline measures such as cutting and severing inter-Korean communication lines following a statement by Kim Yo-jong, First Deputy Director of the North Korean Workers' Party.

He particularly argued that North Korea is deliberately trying to humiliate South Korea to create cracks in South Korea-US cooperation. After Kim Yo-jong's hardline statement on the 13th, North Korea has been targeting the South, showing incompetence in implementing the four major inter-Korean joint declarations?the June 15 Joint Declaration, the October 4 Joint Declaration, the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration, and the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration?while appearing to watch the US's reactions, and has been escalating its level of criticism daily. Hill said, “I think North Korea's attempt to humiliate South Korean intelligence has a more political background,” diagnosing that “North Korea is trying to widen the gap between South Korea and the US.”

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He then directly criticized President Trump's excessive demands for a large increase in defense cost-sharing from host countries as a failure of foreign policy. Trump's obstinacy, which has continued for years, is negatively affecting the regional security posture. Hill emphasized, “So far, we have been doing very poorly, and this is due to President Trump's obsession with the issue of host countries' support for our troops,” highlighting that excessive demands for increased defense costs are negatively impacting South Korea-US cooperation in responding to the North Korean threat.

Amid the US government's foreign policy failures, North Korea is signaling continued hardline moves, but the situation is increasingly difficult to find a solution. The South Korea-US Working Group, which was expected to play a leading role in the 'Korean Peninsula Peace Process,' has been in a blank period without any significant public schedule this year, and some argue that it is rather becoming an obstacle, raising even the argument of the Working Group's uselessness.

Furthermore, with the US presidential election in November approaching, expectations for active moves are low. Although it was anticipated that North Korea-US dialogue would gain momentum after Steven Biegun, the US Deputy Secretary of State and North Korea representative, was promoted to the second-highest position in the State Department in December last year, Mark Lambert, former US Special Representative for North Korea, moved to a UN multilateral envoy role for China containment in January, and in February, Alex Wong, the State Department's Deputy Special Representative for North Korea and Deputy Assistant Secretary for North Korea, took on the ambassador-level position of UN Special Political Affairs Deputy Ambassador. This has led to observations that the intensity of the State Department's North Korea-related work is inevitably declining.

The argument of uselessness has emerged strongly within the ruling party. There is a claim that the South Korea-US Working Group should be utilized but not subordinated. Hong Ik-pyo, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, stated in an interview with MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the 15th, “There have been practical economic cooperation and various agreements between North and South Korea, but those measures are all blocked by the South Korea-US Working Group,” calling it “unnecessary regulation.”

Jung Se-hyun, Senior Vice Chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council, also appeared on tbs Radio's 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory,' saying, “Without the courage to bang the table and shout with the US, inter-Korean relations cannot move forward even one step,” emphasizing, “Regarding North Korea policy, we need to have several pre-consultations with the US, and if that doesn't work, we have no choice but to take action and move forward.”

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.