{"id":474,"date":"2017-02-03T04:05:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T04:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/?p=474"},"modified":"2017-02-03T04:05:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T04:05:10","slug":"jim-mattis-in-south-korea-tries-to-reassure-an-ally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/2017\/02\/03\/jim-mattis-in-south-korea-tries-to-reassure-an-ally\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Mattis, in South Korea, Tries to Reassure an Ally"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 On his first mission to reassure an important American ally, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met on Thursday with top South Korean officials, who agreed to push ahead with the deployment of a new missile defense system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThaad is for defense of our allies\u2019 people, of our troops who are committed to their defense,\u201d Mr. Mattis told reporters, using the acronym for Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense<\/a>, the American antimissile system. It is meant to intercept North Korea\u2019s medium-range missiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere it not for the provocative behavior of North Korea, we would have no need for Thaad out here,\u201d Mr. Mattis added. \u201cThere is no other nation that needs to be concerned about Thaad.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Korea was a logical first stop for Mr. Mattis, who will also visit Japan on the trip. Tensions have risen in the region after Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, proclaimed during his New Year\u2019s Day address that his military was preparing to conduct<\/a> its first test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asian nations have also been concerned about the conflicting signals from President Trump about the United States\u2019 posture in the region. The most recent one was a contentious phone call between Mr. Trump and the Australian prime minister, which was disclosed just as Mr. Mattis began his Asia trip.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump mused during his election campaign that the United States could save money if nations like South Korea and Japan developed their own nuclear weapons<\/a> \u2014 comments that ran counter to decades of American nonproliferation policy.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump said on Twitter<\/a> last month that North Korea would be prevented from developing the ability to reach the United States with a nuclear weapon. But he did not say whether he was referring to military or diplomatic actions. \u201cIt won\u2019t happen,\u201d he tersely declared<\/a> of a North Korean missile test.<\/p>\n

One of Mr. Trump\u2019s first acts as president was to formally withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement<\/a>, which had been an important pillar of the Obama administration\u2019s policy in the region. Critics say the withdrawal by the United States will give China an opportunity to expand its influence.<\/p>\n

More recently, in a phone call on Saturday, Mr. Trump reassured the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, of the United States\u2019 \u201cironclad\u201d commitment to Japan\u2019s security, according to a statement from the White House. Mr. Trump made a similar assurance<\/a> to South Korea on Monday in a call with the country\u2019s acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn.<\/p>\n

The various messages \u2014 some spontaneous, some premeditated \u2014 have turned Mr. Mattis\u2019s otherwise traditional statements of support for South Korea and Japan into messages with strategic importance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a priority for President Trump\u2019s administration to pay attention to the northwest Pacific,\u201d Mr. Mattis said. \u201cI am going to get current by listening to them, finding out where their issues are, and then we are going to work together and strengthen our alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Mattis met with an array of officials in Seoul, including Mr. Hwang, who is the country\u2019s prime minister as well as serving as acting president during the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye. If she is removed, a new presidential election may be held as early as the spring, so the fraught political situation in South Korea poses a challenge for the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cMattis is going to meet with people who probably aren\u2019t going to be in office in a few months,\u201d said Joel S. Wit<\/a>, a Korea expert at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n

The Thaad system is designed to intercept missiles like the Rodong, which is believed to have enough range to reach all of South Korea and some parts of Japan. The United States and South Korea initially said they wanted to deploy the Thaad system by the end of the year, but given the North\u2019s bellicose behavior, there has been some speculation that it may be deployed sooner.<\/p>\n

Under its arrangement with Washington<\/a>, South Korea would provide land and build a base for a Thaad battery, while the United States would pay for the missile system, which would be built by Lockheed Martin, and then cover its operational costs.<\/p>\n

During Mr. Mattis\u2019s meeting with Mr. Hwang, the allies confirmed that they would deploy the Thaad system as planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Mattis reaffirmed the United States\u2019 firm defense commitment to South Korea, including the provision of extended deterrence, and said that the Trump administration will be treating the North Korean nuclear threat as a top-priority security issue,\u201d the office of Kim Kwan-jin, South Korea\u2019s director of national security, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Mindful of the possible early election, crucial opposition leaders in Seoul are opposing the deployment of the Thaad system. They say it would do little to defend South Korea from the North\u2019s plentiful short-range missiles but would anger China, which might retaliate economically. The Chinese have long objected to any deployment of limited missile defenses, out of concern that it would lead to a more comprehensive antimissile shield that could fend off Beijing\u2019s own nuclear missiles.<\/p>\n

Moon Jae-in, an opposition leader who is considered the front-runner among potential presidential candidates, has argued that South Korea should use the Thaad program as diplomatic leverage with China, keeping open the possibility that it would not be deployed if China helped rein in North Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven our standoff with North Korea and its nuclear program, our security and the alliance with the United States are our top priority,\u201d Mr. Moon told reporters recently. \u201cBut the best scenario for us is when the U.S. and China get along well. If there is friction between the two, it\u2019s not going to be easy for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Hwang, in contrast, has said that the Thaad deployment is \u201cinevitable\u201d because of the North\u2019s rapidly growing missile threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThaad is a defense tool whose deployment should not be delayed any more,\u201d he said at a recent news conference. \u201cWe are explaining our position in various ways to neighboring countries like China, who are concerned about the Thaad deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 On his first mission to reassure an important American ally, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met on Thursday with top South Korean officials, who agreed to push ahead with the deployment of a new missile defense system. \u201cThaad is for defense of our allies\u2019 people, of our troops who are committed to their defense,\u201d Mr. Mattis told… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}