All Eyes on South Korea-US Coordination after US Declares North Korea an Urgent Priority

On Feb. 12, the U.S. State Department released a statement declaring that North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs are now an “urgent priority” for the country, marking the first time Joe Biden has ever made clear that North Korea’s nuclear program is a prioritized concern of the U.S. This stance on the issue was revealed following South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s first call on Feb. 11. The two reemphasized the key role the South Korea-U.S. alliance plays in protecting the peace, safety and prosperity of the world and pledged to work closely together to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

In understanding the current situation, we must pay attention to the way in which the U.S. highlights the need for cooperation between the U.S., Republic of Korea and Japan, and the fact that Blinken included Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Moteki in this discussion. I say this because this is all simply part of a strategy the U.S. is utilizing to surround China with U.S. allies and pressure it to comply with U.S. wishes. To further support this theory, it is known that, at the time Biden was calling allies of the U.S., he called countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and, of course, South Korea, but purposefully left out China. In fact, Biden chose to contact Chinese President Xi Jinping only after he announced his plan to establish a defense strategy targeting the country.

For South Korean diplomacy, this situation can either be an opportunity or a crisis. Because the Biden administration is desperately attempting to strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance, it has had no choice but to listen to what South Korean leaders have to say. As a result, negotiations on the cost-sharing agreement for U.S. military troops based in South Korea, which had been on hold due to shared tension during the Donald Trump administration, are nearing an end with a projected funding increase of 13% for South Korea. Furthermore, discussions regarding South Korea-U.S. joint military drills are also said to be moving in a good direction.

However, if, at some point, later on, the U.S. were to demand South Korea join the anti-China front, South Korea-China relations would no doubt become uncomfortable and tense. With China at the forefront of its mind, the United States’ most urgent task now seems to be to maintain Korea-Japan relations; however, this may come at the cost of failing to account for South Korea’s intentions surrounding the problematic history of Japanese colonialism and lingering resentment surrounding the issue of comfort women.