Korea is going all out! Wei Shengluo granted full presidential authority for tariff and defense spending "one-stop negotiation"

U.S. Secretary of State cancels visit to South Korea, emergency dispatch

According to reports on the 6th, three days after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio canceled his visit to South Korea, President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea decided to urgently dispatch the head of the National Security Office, Wei Shengluo, to the United States. Rubio had originally been scheduled to visit South Korea on the 8th, and the South Korean government planned to conduct a comprehensive discussion with him on unresolved issues between South Korea and the United States. However, it was eventually postponed due to the U.S.-Israel summit schedule. It is expected that this time, the two countries will bring sensitive issues such as tariff negotiations, defense cost sharing, coordination of the South Korea-U.S. summit schedule, and re-adjustment of the role of U.S. troops in South Korea to the negotiation table together.

It is speculated that Wei Shengluo's "equal-level official" is Rubio. The trade negotiation matters are handled by the Minister of Trade Negotiations, Yeo Han-gyu, and Wei Shengluo will conduct an overall U.S. negotiation covering trade and security with Rubio. According to a government source, "President Donald Trump hopes to reach a 'one-stop' deal on South Korea's trade surplus with the U.S., shipbuilding cooperation, investment in Alaska, increased LNG imports, and U.S. troops in South Korea." "Wei Shengluo is actually authorized by the president to negotiate and mediate." On the 6th, before leaving the country, Wei Shengluo told reporters, "(The South Korea-U.S. negotiations) have entered an important stage," and "the purpose of this trip to the U.S. is to enhance my personal intervention."

The sharp issue in the security field is the increase in defense spending. The U.S. has long urged its allies to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP. NATO recently expressed its position, intending to respond, planning to increase direct defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2032, and add another 1.5% in security-related areas to meet the 5% target. Current South Korean defense spending accounts for 2.3% of GDP (61 trillion won, approximately RMB 320.2 billion), and the share of the costs of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea is 14 trillion won (approximately RMB 7.3 billion). According to diplomatic sources, "Wei Shengluo will propose a framework for gradually increasing South Korea's defense spending," and "in addition, shipbuilding cooperation, investment in Alaska, and military industry cooperation may also be linked to the plan for increasing defense spending."

Experts predict that the issue of re-adjusting the role of U.S. troops in South Korea will also be mentioned. Recently, the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, Xavier Brunson, publicly stated that the role of U.S. troops in South Korea should be expanded from the so-called deterrence against North Korea "tripwire" to the role of containing China in the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy "aircraft carrier before China." In response, media outlets such as the U.S. media reported: "The U.S. Department of Defense is discussing plans to transfer one brigade-level force of U.S. troops in South Korea to Guam and other Indo-Pacific regions."

Since Trump's first term, there were considerations of withdrawing or reducing U.S. troops in South Korea, and some observers believe that this time, the plan to reduce U.S. troops in South Korea may also come to light. Ju Eun-sik, director of the Korea Institute for Strategic Studies, said, "Re-adjusting the role of U.S. troops in South Korea or reducing the plan may be linked to increasing defense spending and the negotiation of defense costs for U.S. troops in South Korea, and used by the U.S. as a leverage to pressure South Korea." "Not only the U.S. troops in South Korea, but the Trump administration may also bring up the nature of joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S., the transfer of wartime command authority, and other issues for negotiation."

Another task of Wei Shengluo is to expedite the South Korea-U.S. summit. As the core of South Korea's diplomacy, the South Korea-U.S. alliance has been through summits by every South Korean government to confirm the stability of the South Korea-U.S. relationship to the domestic and international community before proceeding with other diplomatic work. The presidential office of the Lee Jae-myung government tried to push for the summit during the G7 Summit, but it ended in failure at that time because the Middle East situation erupted with the Israel-Iran war, and Trump returned to the U.S. urgently.

It is reported that the South Korean government originally planned to proceed with Lee Jae-myung's visit to the U.S. in late July or early August and hold a South Korea-U.S. summit, but the progress was not smooth. There are rumors that it may be postponed to after early August, which has been seen by some public opinion as an "abnormal signal" for South Korea-U.S. relations. In this situation, Wei Shengluo's visit to the U.S. should resolve the uncertainty surrounding the schedule of the South Korea-U.S. summit through negotiations with U.S. government officials.

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1836953309205703/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.