Trying to lock in conditions on US troop presence ahead of a possible second Trump term may invite more trouble
“They’ve become a very wealthy country,” he adds, justifying his demand that South Korea coughed up more money. Mr Pompeo, who made the observation on May 22 at a conference organised by Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, defended Trump’s position as stemming from a desire “to make sure that South Korea was doing the things it needed to do to defend itself”. properly”.)
Prof Kim thinks that South Korea, among the world’s top 15 economies, can afford to give Trump this win, while hedging against the other risks that would arise should Trump be denied. Ms Allison Hooker, who was the Trump administration’s director for Korea policy and directly involved in the Trump-Kim Singapore and Hanoi summits, said in an online forum hosted by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies on May 16, that Trump is likely to have another go at solving North Korea’s nuclear quandary.
The US has reiterated that it has no plans to “forward-deploy” nuclear weapons to the peninsula, with the Washington Declaration signed in April 2023 being a move to strengthen the South Korea-US security alliance and assure South Koreans of the Americans’ commitment in the event of a nuclear attack.
In the Time interview, Trump said he was considering a “ring around the country” tariff of more than 10 per cent on all imports, and a more than 60 per cent tariff on Chinese imports. With such measures, he is hoping to spur an industrial renaissance by freeing the US economy from the shackles of foreign manufacturing.
In September 2017, Trump had baulked at the 2016 trade deficit figure and ordered a withdrawal from the Korea-US free trade agreement, calling it a “horrible deal”. He was appeased to change his mind after Seoul and Washington made slight revisions to the free trade agreement in September 2018. What remains to be seen would be the chemistry between Trump and Mr Yoon, a former prosecutor-general.