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President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea and President Joe Biden of the US hold their hands over their hearts during a welcome banquet for Biden held at the National Museum of Korea on May 21, 2022. (courtesy of the presidential office)

President Yoon Suk-yeol embarks on his state visit to the US on Monday. Yoon’s visit will be the first state visit to the US by a South Korean president in 12 years, and will mark the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-US alliance. Many expect that he will be greeted with the warmest of welcomes. However, there are considerable concerns about how productive this summit will be for South Korea’s interests.

The Yoon administration stated that this summit’s main agenda is “strengthening the effectiveness of the US’ extended deterrence in Korea.” The idea of extended deterrence is that if South Korea is threatened with a nuclear attack, the US will mobilize its nuclear umbrella and missile defense system to provide a deterrent at the level it would for the US mainland.

It is undeniable that North Korea’s recent nuclear and missile advancements and test launches have made it necessary for the US to provide additional security. However, the US is likely to demand that South Korea take a stronger stance regarding its policies with China in return. This could lead to South Korea becoming a US outpost in the neo-Cold War triads of South Korea-US-Japan and North Korea-China-Russia.

While the objective is bolstering Korea’s national security, in this process, tensions could escalate on the Korean Peninsula, creating a vicious cycle of security threats.

It is also unclear what Yoon hopes to accomplish via the summit on the economic front. The president’s office explained that neither the CHIPS and Science Act nor the Inflation Reduction Act — two Biden policies that have been criticized as hurting Korean industries — will be on the agenda. The reason given is that the damage is not as severe as previously expected and much of the uncertainty has already been resolved.

While there is some truth to this, it is a very dismissive stance, given that the public has been demanding since the South Korea-US summit was announced that Yoon take this opportunity to resolve these issues, or at least raise the issues with the US.

The CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act are designed to encourage local production in the US and to contain China’s economic activities. South Korea needs to completely reorganize the corporate strategies of its core industries such as semiconductors, automobiles and batteries in order to be compatible with US policies.

Prior to the state visit, Seoul adamantly insisted that the US did no wrong when it came to the question of spying on Korea’s National Security Office, and then walked straight into trouble with Russia and China by bringing up the issues of arms aid to Ukraine and the Taiwan issue.

These issues benefit US national interests, but by doing so, South Korea has created national security risks for itself.

No one doubts that the South Korea-US alliance is important. But sometimes, it is necessary to protest and make demands. Otherwise, South Korea will become nothing but a pawn for the US’ global strategies. An alliance is a means to benefit the national interest and national security of two partners — it must not be reduced to an end in and of itself.

We hope that the current administration in Yongsan will not be swayed by the rhetoric of “strengthening the South Korea-US alliance,” while trading in Korea’s national interest for a warm welcome.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]