The president suddenly said South Korea would have to pay for a missile defense system.<\/b>
\nSEOUL \u2014\u00a0 The South Korean government\u00a0reeled Friday at President Trump\u2019s 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\u2019 leading allies in Asia.
Trump\u2019s 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 \u2018painful\u2019 measures to punish North Korea]
\u201cSo far the reaction in South Korea to all these things that Mr. Trump has said has been surprisingly restrained, but I think that\u2019s because South Koreans are still trying to figure out what kind of character he is, \u201d said David Straub, a former U. S. diplomat dealing with the Koreas and author of the recent\u00a0book \u201cAnti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea.\u201d
\u201cThey know he\u2019s an unusual president, and they\u2019 re discounting a lot of what he says, but eventually remarks like these will have a serious effect, \u201d Straub said.
Trump on Thursday revived \u2013 in a particularly blunt way \u2013 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\u00a0 Korea was once part of China \u2014 which angered many South Koreans \u2014 and his\u00a0 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\u00a0 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 \u2018swiftly\u2019 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. «It’s phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky.»
The South Korean government had been reluctant to deploy the system, aimed at guarding against the North Korean threat, because it would anger China, its biggest trading partner.
The U. S. military had been urging Seoul to deploy the system, and the government finally agreed in July last year. Under their agreement, the United States would pay for the system while South Korea would supply the land for it.
But it has remained controversial. The fierce opposition only mounted when the U. S. military moved key pieces of THAAD equipment onto the deployment site\u00a0 in the middle of the night this week.
The idea that South Korea would have to pay for a system that many reject, analysts say, will boost support for Moon Jae-in, the liberal candidate for president who has vowed to review the previous government\u2019s decision to host the THAAD system.
Moon already has a strong lead in the polls, some of which give him twice as much support as his nearest rival. Among his policy proposals, he wants to resume engagement with North Korea, pursuing a very different course from Trump\u2019s \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d approach.
The election will be held on May 9.
When progressives were elected president before \u2014 Kim Dae-jung in 1997 and Roh Moo-hyun in 2002 \u2014 anti-American sentiment rose sharply on both occasions, said Straub.
Moon\u2019s team seized on Trump\u2019s statement.
\u201cIt has become obvious that the deployment decision process was seriously flawed from the start, \u201d Youn Kwan-suk, a spokesman for the Moon campaign, told reporters in Seoul.\u00a0
[Twenty-five million reasons the U. S. hasn\u2019 t struck North Korea]
\u201cAs the THAAD system will have a big impact on our security and impose huge economic costs, it\u2019s essential that we seek approval for it from the National Assembly, \u201d Youn said, reiterating Moon\u2019s intention to review the whole plan.
Centrist Ahn Cheol-soo, who has said he will abide by the previous government\u2019s deal with the United States, said the agreement must be honored and that any changes would need National Assembly approval.
Even conservative parties that support the THAAD deployment said the issue was \u201ca matter of trust\u201d between the allies.
In another slight, Trump said the U. S. trade agreement with South Korea \u2014 forged during the George W. Bush administration \u2014 was \u201ca horrible deal\u201d and\u00a0 threatened to terminate it.
\u201cIt was a Hillary Clinton disaster, a deal that should\u2019 ve never been made, \u201d he said in an interview Thursday night with The Washington Post.
During a visit to South Korea earlier this month, Vice President Pence said\u00a0 the administration wants to overhaul the deal to make it fairer to the United States.
South Korean authorities said Friday that they had not been informed of either proposal.
\u201cOur basic position remains unchanged, \u201d South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The THAAD agreement reached last year, whereby South Korea provides the land and the United States the equipment, remains in force, it said.
An official at the Trade Ministry said the South Korean government has not received a request to renegotiate the trade deal or a notice it was being torn up. «We are trying to understand what President Trump said exactly and the context of his remark, » a ministry official told local media.
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