ED Ally or mercenary

US defense secretary’s visit to determine status of alliance

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis will visit Korea this week on the first stop of his foreign tour after being confirmed for the job Jan. 20.

His reputation precedes this visit ― fitting his nickname “Mad Dog,” the retired marine general is known for his toughness and fairness. Ahead of him is a task he can only make a success of by using both of his characteristics well.

His toughness should be shown toward North Korea.

Mattis should reconfirm the ROK-U.S. alliance to be as intact as before the inauguration of his boss, President Donald Trump, and will be strengthened to deter the North from invading, and defeating it if it attacks. This show of unity between the two allies will be pivotal in keeping the North’s nuclear and missile challenges at bay. This also would help the U.S. tailor its strategy of countering China’s risky hegemonic endeavors.

The North has vowed to test another intercontinental ballistic missile with reports that preparations are in the final stages. The U.S. should closely consult South Korea and Japan, and if the projectile overflies the latter, respond in a way that undercuts the North and leaves it with little room to pit the two allies against each other.

Mattis would be right to ask Seoul to hasten the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interceptor or THAAD, which is being held up amid the leadership vacuum created by the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. Acting leader Hwang Kyo-ahn is widely seen to lack the political authority to push it ahead in the face of popular opposition and pressure from Beijing, which wrongly claims that THAAD’s powerful radar system will spy not just on the North but on China’s interior military facilities.

Perhaps the bigger job for Secretary Mattis is about mending ties. Trump ruffled a lot of feathers here, calling Korea a “freeloader” for passing its own defense bill onto the U.S. and encouraging a small and dangerous group of nuclear armament supporters. This is interpreted as his willingness to withdraw the vaguely defined “extended deterrence,” a supposed successor to the “nuclear umbrella,” the Cold War U.S. guarantee of protection.

Seoul may increase its share in the cost of maintaining U.S. forces because its ally Washington feels its burden is too heavy, not because it is a free rider as Trump claimed.

Mattis should use his sense of fairness. If he threatens Seoul merely as a messenger of his boss and forces it to pay more, he would do so at the risk of poisoning the 70-year military alliance and turning U.S. soldiers, sailors and marines into mercenaries. That would be an affront to the long proud U.S. military tradition that he is a part of.