US pressure on Seoul over Huawei taps into fears of North Korea

The United States is turning up the heat on its ally South Korea over Huawei, playing on Seoul’s fears of losing access to the intelligence that helps it keep a check on its bellicose northern neighbour.

The pressure campaign, part of a broader effort by Washington to isolate the Chinese tech giant, highlights the dilemma faced by the administration of Moon Jae-in as it tries to maintain a precarious balance between its security ally, the US, and its top trading partner, China.

Among the closest US allies in Asia, Seoul relies on Washington’s intelligence-gathering capabilities to keep tabs on the bellicose North, with which it fought a civil war from 1950-1953 that left up to 4 million people dead. Under a mutual defence pact signed in the aftermath of the conflict, South Korea hosts 28,500 US troops on its soil as a bulwark against provocations by the North, with which it remains technically at war.

“Many people in South Korea are very much concerned that if the Moon Jae-in government does not participate in the US-led anti-Huawei campaign, there will be no exchange of military information between the two countries,” said Kim Jong-ha, a security expert at Hannam University in South Korea’s Daejeon. “Further, this could eventually lead to a breakdown of the alliance.”