Kim Tae-hyo, national security adviser to South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol, said on Wednesday, “To ensure unwavering national security, we will work with the new administration in Washington to establish a perfect South Korea-US security system.''
Kim said South Korea wants to build a “stronger and more dynamic global comprehensive strategic alliance” with the United States.
Another senior South Korean presidential official said, “Communications between President Yun Seok-Yeol and the next president will be quickly arranged'' to discuss the possibility of strengthening cooperation.
South Korea was dispatched Lee Tae-woo, a career diplomat, visited Washington in March to speed up negotiations to renew the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), an agreement first signed in 1991, which the South Korean government says President Trump plans to pursue in 2024. This was because they were concerned that they would win the election and demand an increase in defense spending.
President Trump and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper both said during the first Trump administration that “wealthy” South Korea should pay more for its defense. At the time, South Korea had proposed a 13% increase, but President Trump had in mind a hike of nearly 400%.
South Korea succeeded in renewing the SMA for five years under the Biden administration in October, but its annual contribution only increased by 8.3% to $1.09 billion. Around the same time, Trump explained South Korea is described as a “money machine” in an interview with Bloomberg News He said it should be paid $10 billion a year.
bloomberg reported On Monday, South Korea announced plans to increase oil and gas imports from the United States if Trump wins the election, in a bid to appease Trump by reducing its trade imbalance with the United States.
Seoul officials have been meeting with businesses and think tanks in recent weeks to discuss post-election strategy. After President Trump took office, South Korea rushed to find ways to increase its energy purchases from the United States, two people familiar with the matter said.
The government may approach major oil importing countries and ask them to increase their share of U.S. purchases, but that won't necessarily lead to the expected increase, the people said. This time around, geopolitical risks in the Middle East could give companies even more incentive to turn to the US for imports, they added.
South Korean refiners reportedly believe that increasing crude oil imports from the United States would be good business, as crude oil supplies from the United States are currently more profitable than imports from the Middle East.
According to Bloomberg, South Korea is also running a public relations campaign to convince the second Trump administration and Republicans in Congress that Korean companies are investing more in the United States and hiring more American workers. It is said that they are doing so.
President Yoon provided He congratulated President-elect Trump on the social media platform Twitter early Wednesday morning.
“Under your strong leadership, the future of the ROK-US alliance and the United States will become even brighter. I look forward to working closely with you,” Yun wrote. ROK is the official name of the Republic of Korea and the Korean government.
Gallup International is public opinion poll Before the election, it was found that 83% of South Koreans believe the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election will affect their country. That was the highest percentage Gallup found when asking that question in 43 countries.
According to a Gallup poll, 71% of South Koreans prefer Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate, while only 16% prefer President Trump. More than half of South Koreans said they expected America's standing in the world to “deteriorate” if Trump wins.
South Korea has been involved in several attacks by North Korea ahead of the U.S. presidential election, including a large-scale test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) last week and a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, just hours before the presidential election. They were concerned that he might take such provocative actions. The election has begun.
