A top Pentagon official yesterday praised South Korea as a model ally ready to take greater responsibility for its own security after a new US defense strategy signaled a reduction in US military support to deter North Korea from aggression.
After arriving in Seoul yesterday, US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby held talks with South Korea’s foreign and defense ministers that he said were about advancing an alliance forged in the wake of the Korean War of the 1950s.
“The ROK is a model ally that has committed to meet the global standard of spending 3.5% of GDP on defense and take greater responsibility for its own defense in the context of our alliance,” Colby wrote on X, using the acronym for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
Photo: EPA
South Korean Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back stressed during his meeting with Colby the importance of combined readiness posture to maintain peace and stability on the peninsula, Ahn’s office said.
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun emphasized the need for continued close communication and cooperation with the US during an earlier meeting with Colby, his ministry said.
Colby’s visit comes after the US National Defense Strategy, released on Friday, urged South Korea to take the primary role in deterring North Korea as US President Donald Trump’s administration shifts focus to prioritize protecting the US homeland. Colby has a leading role in writing the strategy.
“South Korea is capable of taking primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited US support,” the document said. “This shift in the balance of responsibility is consistent with America’s interest in updating US force posture on the Korean Peninsula.”
Details of how the US might change its force posture are not yet clear. The Pentagon is expected to release an assessment soon of where and how the US stations its military forces around the world, known as the Global Posture Review.
South Korea has said it would raise annual defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP from 2.3 percent “as soon as possible.”
South Korea also sealed an agreement late last year with the US to build nuclear-powered submarines for the South Korean navy, although the details of the plan have yet to be worked out.
In his meeting with Colby, Cho said that cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines would boost Seoul’s deterrence capabilities and contribute to the alliance, a ministry statement said.
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