Seoul to link Hormuz mission to defense cost
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters aboard Air Force One after visiting Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, Wednesday (local time). AP-Yonhap
US stepping up pressure ahead of cost-sharing talks
By Jung Da-min, Kim Yoo-chul
With U.S. President Donald Trump stepping up the pressure on South Korea to shoulder more of the burden for defense cost sharing, Seoul plans to cut the country's expenses for maintaining U.S. troops. To this end, Seoul is seeking to cooperate with the U.S.-led naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz and purchase more advanced weapons as leverage in the upcoming talks.
A high-ranking government official told The Korea Times Thursday afternoon that Seoul is “seriously considering redeploying the Cheonghae naval unit to the Hormuz” as a “bargaining chip” for the defense cost sharing negotiations with the United States.
“I have to say, yes, we have to protect safe shipping in the Hormuz. South Korea's national interests in the Hormuz are not limited. The idea of redeploying the Cheonghae unit to the Hormuz is one thing we are working through,” the official direct with the knowledge said asking not to be identified.
On Wednesday night (local time), U.S. President Trump said in a tweet that “South Korea has agreed to pay substantially more money to the United States in order to defend itself from North Korea,” in an apparent move to mount the pressure on Seoul ahead of the cost sharing negotiations set to kick off in the near future.
This comes as the negotiation for 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA) is expected to start soon, with this year's deal expiring at the end of this year. In February, South Korea and the U.S. signed a new deal that increased Seoul's contribution for stationing American troops by 8.2 percent to 1.04 trillion won ($861 million).
“It seems the pressure from the U.S. side will be quite strong this time, considering the media reports that the U.S. might ask South Korea to pay $5 billion, which was about 6 trillion won,” said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He was referring to recent reports citing an anonymous diplomatic source which said U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton asked for $5 billion when he visited Seoul last month.
“The South Korean government is likely to delay the decision to send its naval fleet to the Strait of Hormuz as well as its decision whether it would deploy more U.S. weapons, as the cost sharing negotiations will not end by the end of this year,” Shin said.
As the third-largest importer of arms produced by the U.S., South Korea bought $6.73 billion worth of U.S. weapons from 2008 to 2017, according to a January report by Seoul's Defense Agency for Technology and Quality.
Seoul recently deployed 40 U.S. F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter jets which have been arriving in Seoul starting March and 4 RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk uncrewed spy planes set to arrive within this year starting September.
The South Korean government is also reviewing the deployment of 12 U.S. MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, while the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) under the U.S. State Department announced Aug. 7 (local time) that it has approved the sale of helicopters to South Korea for $800 million through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system.
But Seoul's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) on Thursday said the approval of the FMS sale of the U.S. Seahawk did not mean Seoul has decided to buy them. After it kicked off an open bid for South Korea's second batch of anti-submarine warfare helicopters in March, the competition is still ongoing between the U.S. aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin and Italian giant Leonardo.
In 2016, DAPA purchased eight helicopters for the first batch plan of 20 with Leonardo and deployed its AW159 Wildcat helicopters in 2017.
Meanwhile, Trump's erroneous remarks on Seoul's defense cost sharing have stirred confusion and controversy. Trump tweeted on Aug. 7 that South Korea paid $990 million last year, while the exact amount was 960 billion won ($795 million).