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As Seoul loses faith in Trump’s approach on North Korea, China is poised to step in
- With Kim Jong-un threatening a ‘Christmas surprise’, fears are mounting that distractions are getting in the way of US-led denuclearisation efforts
- Absent leadership from Washington, China has been holding talks and calling for sanctions to be eased in an effort to maintain stability on the peninsula
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As 2019 draws to a close, unease is growing in South Korea over US methods in dealing with North Korea, which has threatened a possible missile launch or nuclear test referred to by officials as a “Christmas surprise”.
Scepticism has deepened over Washington’s ultimate aims for the Korean peninsula, given the pressure on Seoul to buy more US arms and increase its share of costs to keep 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea.
The South is already Washington’s fourth-biggest weapons market, spending US$6.23 billion between 2009 and 2018, and recently deployed a fleet of US F-35A stealth fighter jets, a move condemned by Pyongyang as a breach of last year’s inter-Korean summit agreement.
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“Concerns are growing that President Donald Trump might let tension mount on the Korean peninsula in coming months while pushing South Korea to drastically increase its share of the defence burden as his success with Seoul will help him do the same with Japan and Germany as well,” said Yang Moo-jin from the University of North Korean Studies.
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With Trump having been impeached by the House of Representatives and facing a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate ahead of next year’s election, Yang said the US president is unlikely to be focused on a breakthrough in getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and missiles.
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