Mina Pollmann
Even before the outbreak of war in the Middle East, South Korea was wary of U.S. calls for “strategic flexibility” or the potential use of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to counter China. Now that the United States is reallocating air defense assets from the Korean Peninsula to the Middle East, those concerns have taken on a new urgency. While South Korean President Lee Jae-myung opposed the U.S. decision, he also stated that he could not “impose [South Korea’s] position” on the United States.
U.S. defense officials have downplayed Asian allies’ concerns about a decreasing stockpile of munitions – including missiles – and the concentration of U.S. military assets in the Middle East. While some administration officials – such as Elbridge Colby – might say that the United States is “laser-focused on the First Island Chain” of Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan, and focused on “very close alignment with [U.S.] allies and partners in the region,” words are cheap. Moving multiple Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system launchers out of bases in South Korea and one-third of the U.S. naval surface fleet to the Middle East sends a very different message.
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