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An editorial co-authored by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper published in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 16. (WSJ website)

A recent newspaper column coauthored by the US secretary of state and defense secretary that called on South Korea to pay a greater share of the cost of defense has provoked criticism inside the US.

In a Jan. 19 article titled “Trump’s strong-arm foreign policy tactics create tensions with US friends and foes,” the Washington Post mentioned a joint commentary written by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 16 as an example of US President Donald Trump’s pressure on South Korea to increase its financial contribution to stationing US troops.

“The article caused unease in Seoul because of its implication that South Korea was acting more like a ‘dependent’ than an ‘ally,’” the Washington Post said.

“Today South Korea bears no more than one-third of the costs most directly associated with the stationing of US forces on the Korean Peninsula,” Pompeo and Esper wrote in their commentary, titled “South Korea is an ally, not a dependent.”

“South Korea can and should contribute more to its defense,” the two officials said.

These are “conversations that typically happen behind closed doors rather than in a national newspaper,” the Washington Post said, while noting that South Korea had “agreed to pay $925 million” last year, “an 8.2% increase from the previous year’s payment.”

“President Trump fails to understand why America has allies in the first place,” Harry Kazianis, an Asia specialist at the Center for the National Interest, was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “He treats allies more like mafia partners in crime who need to kiss up to America for protection.”

Other examples of Trump’s “strong-arm foreign policy tactics” mentioned in the article are Trump’s pressure on NATO members to up their defense contributions, his threat to slap tariffs on European automobiles if Europe doesn’t cooperate on his Iranian policy, and his threat to remove US troops from Iraq and place tariffs on the country.

According to the Washington Post, “Trump’s maximalist approach to diplomacy” — in which he seeks to achieve all his demands without making any compromises — “has scored him some short-term victories, [but] been derided as extortion by his detractors.”

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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