‘Modernise’ or pay up: US pressures South Korea’s to step up militarily

The United States has urged South Korea to “modernise” their bilateral military alliance and ensure a timely response to threats from Pyongyang and beyond the peninsula, in comments seen as pressuring Seoul to shoulder a greater security burden.

US Forces Korea (USFK) Commander General Xavier Brunson, in his first press conference with local reporters since taking command in December, said modernising the bilateral military alliance was essential to keep it “ready, relevant and able” to respond to evolving regional threats, such as from China and Russia.

“What’s being asked of Korea is to be stronger against the DPRK, that we might have the flexibility as we modernise our alliance so that we could go do other things,” Brunson told journalists on Friday last week, referring to North Korea by the abbreviated form of its official name.

He highlighted the “strategic flexibility” of US troops, citing the rare relocation of a Patriot missile battery from South Korea to the Middle East in April to support operations against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

“That is strategic flexibility – the ability to be able to place your forces in space and time and need. That is what we seek to always be able to do,” he said.

USFK Commander General Xavier Brunson speaks at the LANPAC Symposium and Exposition in Hawaii earlier this year. Brunson wants Seoul’s military to “go do other things” with the US. Photo: US Army

Brunson’s comments come ahead of the first summit between South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and his US counterpart Donald Trump, set for August 25 in Washington.

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