Seoul: The geopolitically-charged issue of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK)’s “strategic flexibility” appears to be reemerging as the Pentagon is working to craft a new defense strategy to prioritize deterring Chinese threats and increasing allies’ “burden sharing.”
According to Yonhap News Agency, the issue has gained renewed attention amid speculation that President Donald Trump’s administration might strive to align USFK troops and other U.S. military assets in the Indo-Pacific with his “America First” policy priorities to keep China in check and prevail in a potential contingency.
Greater strategic flexibility would mean the use of U.S. troops in South Korea for a wider range of expeditionary operations, including roles for regional contingencies — a move farther away from their traditional dedication to deterring North Korean threats.
Analysts said that from the United States’ perspective, strategic flexibility might be a requirement for Washington to rebalance its military assets to optimi
ze deterrence against China at a time when security challenges have become more convoluted due to Beijing’s military buildup and its collaboration with North Korea and Russia.
For South Korea, the issue serves as a sobering reminder of geopolitical realities marked by a rancorous Sino-U.S. rivalry, while it is raising anew a question over how to ensure that America’s security commitment to the Asian ally remains robust and unequivocal.
“With the Sino-U.S. relationship seen as edging closer toward confrontation beyond a phase of competition, the U.S. may be much more explicitly looking to enhance strategic flexibility of USFK forces,” Nam Chang-hee, professor of international relations at South Korea’s Inha University, told Yonhap News Agency.
Patrick Cronin, chair for Asia-Pacific security at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, described strategic flexibility as a “necessary planning requirement,” pressed by increased regional and global security risks.
Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby is lead
ing the charge to write the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy, with a focus on adjusting USFK’s role to address Chinese threats more directly.
The concept of strategic flexibility is not new. Seoul and Washington agreed on it in 2006, with South Korea’s then Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon and then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issuing a joint statement acknowledging the necessity for strategic flexibility of U.S. forces in the ROK.
However, hurdles remain, such as Pyongyang’s advancing nuclear and missile threats and Seoul’s concerns about potential entanglement in regional conflicts as a treaty ally.
The U.S. military has justified its intention to use USFK forces for off-peninsula missions based on the broad defense coverage stipulated in the 1953 mutual defense treaty between Seoul and Washington.
Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corp., suggested that while greater strategic flexibility might reduce U.S. planning for North Korean threats, it also prepares South Korea for p
otential Chinese aggression.
The issue of USFK flexibility is anticipated to be a significant topic for the new government in Seoul following the June 3 presidential election, requiring high-level defense discussions.