East Asia Forum:
Washington appears to be using the South Korea–US alliance to advance its goal of containing China as part of the ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ strategy. But US attempts to marshal South Korea in strategic competition with Beijing will ultimately run the risk of alienating its partner, even as both Washington and Seoul insist that the alliance remains ‘ironclad’.
This move comes at a time when the South Korea–US alliance is experiencing a level of strain unseen for nearly 20 years. The strain is coming from the White House’s exorbitant financial demands for the maintenance of United States Forces Korea as well as US pressure on South Korea not to withdraw from the GSOMIA intelligence-sharing pact with Japan.
