The United States and South Korea agreed on a cost-sharing deal that will include a “meaningful increase” in payments for U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula in a partial reset between the two nations. This is President Biden’s attempt at showing that the United States is committed to our allies and military defense agreements. During his campaigning, Biden swore to take a more measured approach toward US-South Korea relations. “As President, I’ll stand with South Korea, strengthening our alliance to safeguard peace in East Asia and beyond, rather than extorting Seoul with reckless threats to remove our troops,” Biden wrote in a column for South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
My take is that this is a step in the right direction towards our relations with South Korea. I think President Trump spent to much time flirting with North Korea and not enough time making sure that South Korea is fine. South Korea is our democratic ally in Asia, and to lose them would be to lose our valuable foothold in Asia. To avoid tension with North Korea, the United States needs to make sure North Korea does not perceive our repartnering with South Korea as either an offensive action or an end to negotiations with North Korea. There needs to be a careful balance with our interactions with North and South Korea.
The connection to class that I drew was that the only reason we are in a constant juggling act with North and South Korea is our involvement in the Korean War in 1950, and our commitment to containment theory to prevent the spread of communism. The Korean War ending in a stalemate and armistice instead of a declared winner, combined with the North Korean development of nuclear weaponry, resulted in a thorn in the shape of North Korea in our side for decades now. If the United States had not been as committed to containment theory in the 50s as they were, then the Korean peninsula may not be as belligerent as it is today.