In the second Trump administration, U.S. troops in South Korea may be expected to focus primarily on defending against the threat from China, rather than North Korea analysts say.
Elbridge Colby, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is skeptical that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons and believes that U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) must instead be used to contain China’s military threat, transferring to Seoul primary responsibility for defending against North Korea.
Traditional defense officials in Trump’s previous administration advocated for the USFK’s role in responding to North Korean threats with a more hawkish stance against its nuclear and missile development.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Colby would work closely with Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth to “restore” Washington’s military power and achieve a policy of “peace through strength.”
Colby has been calling for U.S. military resources to be concentrated on a denial strategy against China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific, instead of dispersing U.S. defense resources to other regions such as Europe, aligning with Trump’s campaign pledge to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. […]
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