The president suddenly said South Korea would have to pay for a missile defense system.
SEOUL — The South Korean government reeled Friday at President Trump’s sudden insistence that it expects Seoul to pay $1 billion for a missile defense system that many here do not want, the latest in a series of slights against one of the United States’ leading allies in Asia.
Trump’s remarks come at a particularly sensitive time on the Korean Peninsula: Not only have tensions with North Korea risen to their highest level in years, but South Koreans are heading to the polls in less than two weeks and look set to elect a president who would be diametrically opposed to Trump on many key issues.
[Tillerson calls for ‘painful’ measures to punish North Korea]
“So far the reaction in South Korea to all these things that Mr. Trump has said has been surprisingly restrained, but I think that’s because South Koreans are still trying to figure out what kind of character he is, ” said David Straub, a former U. S. diplomat dealing with the Koreas and author of the recent book “Anti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea.”
“They know he’s an unusual president, and they’ re discounting a lot of what he says, but eventually remarks like these will have a serious effect, ” Straub said.
Trump on Thursday revived – in a particularly blunt way – his campaign-trail complaints that South Korea was not paying enough for its defense and that it was getting the better deal out of a trade pact.
This came on the heels of his assertion that Korea was once part of China — which angered many South Koreans — and his phone calls to Beijing and Tokyo over the current North Korean problem but not to Seoul.
South Korea is between presidents after the impeachment of Park Geun-hye last month, but many people here took offense that Trump did not have the courtesy to call their acting president on a issue centered on the Korean Peninsula.
In the latest turn of events, Trump said he wanted the government in Seoul to pay for the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system that the U. S. military installed in South Korea just this week and which is expected to become operational in the next few days.
[U. S. starts ‘swiftly’ installing controversial antimissile battery in South Korea]
„I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It’s a billion-dollar system, “ Trump said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
