After being engaged in a trade war with China for many long months, President Trump seemed to have almost forgotten about another East Asian country he had beef with in the past - North Korea. However, this week this issue sparked once more, this time with the US President trying to strain his country’s relationship with the most important ally in the region - South Korea.
North Korea has continued to test missiles near South Korea and Japan, in violation of UN regulations, also gathering the disapproval of many of the leading countries in the developed world. However, Trump defended Kim Jong Un over Twitter, stating that there was nothing about missile tests in the agreement he signed with North Korea’s leader, and that Trump trusts him to do the right thing in this situation.
Considering that North Korea is an isolated country under a tight dictatorship, currently developing nuclear weapons, Trump’s show of trust was surprising, and quite predictably upset South Korea, a decade-long ally of the US. The two countries have worked together to keep the peace on the Korean peninsula since the Korean war.
Just yesterday, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un responded negatively to another scheduled military exercise that the US army station in South Korea performs alongside local troops.
In another surprising turn, Donald Trump also said today that he demands that South Korea pays almost 5 billion USD to the United States in exchange for its military assistance. This is a 500% increase on the two allies’ previous agreement and has angered both Republicans and Democrats in the US, not to mention the South Korean government.
The agreement for sharing military costs has been changed in the past, though typical increases tend to stay below 10%. The President’s request for a 500% increase in unprecedented in US foreign policy.
