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SEOUL: South Korea’s president vowed Wednesday to sharply increase defense spending to introduce a variety of high-tech weapons as part of efforts to build a more self-reliant military, as US President Donald Trump’s America-first agenda raises questions about the US security commitment to its Asian ally.
A tariff war instigated by Trump’s administration and his transactional approach to security threaten to erode many South Koreans’ trust in the US.
There are concerns that he may demand much higher South Korean payments for the US military presence in the country or possibly downsize America’s military footprint to focus more on China.
In an Armed Forces Day ceremony Wednesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung described the South Korea-US military alliance as “solid” and didn’t mention any concerns about Trump’s policies. But he repeatedly stressed an intention to build a more independent military that can independently defend the country from external threats.
“We should move toward a strong, self-reliant defense, based on our pride and confidence in our military power,” Lee said. “To ensure peace and prosperity for the Republic of Korea, we must not depend on anyone else but strengthen our own power.”
To boost a self-reliant defense posture, Lee said his government would increase next year’s defense spending by 8.2 percent to introduce advanced weapons systems like AI combat robots, autonomous drones and precision attack and defense missile systems.
The government will also actively foster defense industry and improve soldiers’ welfare by upgrading their service conditions and compensation systems, he said.
Lee, a liberal who espouses greater peace on the Korean Peninsula, didn’t mention rival North Korea, a likely effort not to provoke the country. But bolstering South Korea’s military readiness would clearly be aimed at more effectively deterring potential aggressions from North Korea, which has nuclear weapons.
The North recently has repeatedly rejected Lee’s overtures, though it signaled interests in restoring diplomacy with Trump.
A weakening of the US security commitment could seriously shake South Korea’s security as it has no nuclear weapons and is under the protection of a US “nuclear umbrella,” which has long promised a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. The US also deploys about 28,500 US troops in South Korea.
A potentially sensitive issue for the alliance is an implementation of a previous agreement to transfer wartime operational control of the allied forces to a binational command led by a South Korean general with a US deputy. The commander of the US forces in South Korea currently has wartime operational control of South Korea’s military.
Many South Koreans view reclaiming their own military’s wartime operational control as a matter of national sovereignty but others worry that would result in loosening of the alliance. Some observers say the Trump administration would use the transfer as a way to reduce spending and concentrate on China but it would still want to maintain influence on the Korean Peninsula.
Elbridge Colby, who was confirmed as Trump’s under secretary of defense for policy, said at his Senate confirmation hearings in March that he would carefully review the “delicate issue” of transferring wartime operational control.
“I support efforts to bolster South Korea’s role in the alliance,” he said.
Colby provided more detailed comments in a 2024 interview with Yonhap news agency.
“South Korea is going to have to take primary, essentially overwhelming responsibility for its own self-defense against North Korea because we don’t have a military that can fight North Korea and then be ready to fight China,” he said.
Lee reaffirmed his support of the transfer Wednesday.
“The Republic of Korea will lead a joint defense posture with Washington by regaining the operational control based on firm ROK-US alliance,” Lee said. “Solid combined defense capability and posture will not only bring peace and stability to the Korean Peninsula but also contribute to the region’s stability and shared prosperity.”

WASHINGTON: The US government began shutting down after midnight Wednesday as lawmakers and President Donald Trump failed to break a budget impasse during acrimonious talks that hinged on Democratic demands for health care funding.
It is the first shutdown since the longest in history – lasting 35 days – almost seven years ago, and will stop work at multiple federal departments and agencies, affecting hundreds of thousands of government workers.
Trump blamed Democrats over the stalled talks and threatened to punish the party and its voters during the stoppage by targeting progressive priorities and forcing mass public sector job cuts.
“So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He said a “lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” and suggested he would use the pause to “get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things.”
Government operations began grinding to a halt at 12:01 a.m. (0401 GMT), after a frenetic but ultimately failed bid in the Senate to rubber-stamp a short-term funding resolution already approved by the House of Representatives.
Hopes of a compromise had been hanging by a thread since Monday, when a last-gasp meeting at the White House yielded no progress.
The gridlocked Congress regularly runs into deadlines to agree on spending plans, and the negotiations are invariably fraught. But Congress usually avoids them ending in shutdowns.
Democrats, in the minority in both chambers of Congress, have been seeking to flex their rare leverage over the federal government eight months into Trump’s barnstorming second presidency that has seen entire government agencies dismantled.
Trump’s threat of new job cuts added to anxieties in the federal workforce sparked by large-scale firings orchestrated by tycoon Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year.
Health care under threat
The 100-member Senate requires government funding bills to receive 60 votes – seven more than the Republicans control.
Republicans had proposed to extend current funding until late November, pending negotiations on a longer-term spending plan.
But Democrats wanted to see hundreds of billions of dollars in health care spending restored, particularly in the Obamacare health insurance program for low-income households, which the Trump administration is likely to eliminate.
Almost all Senate Democrats voted against a House-passed, seven-week stop-gap funding measure hours ahead of the midnight deadline.
It remains unclear how long the shutdown will last.
The federal government has shuttered 21 times since 1976, when Congress enacted the modern-day budget process.
Some stoppages have lasted only a few hours – not long enough to affect government operations.
The longest began on December 22, 2018 when Democrats and Trump found themselves at an impasse over $5.7 billion the president was demanding for a border wall during his first term.
Around 380,000 federal employees were furloughed and another 420,000 worked without pay.
Senators can move quickly when inclined by waiving the normal procedures that tend to hold up legislation.
The upper chamber was due back in session on Wednesday, but a House recess lasting all week means it will not be able to rubber stamp any quick deal agreed by the Senate.
The Senate will be out on Thursday for the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, but will be back on Friday and possibly in session through the weekend.
The shutdown will not affect vital functions like the Postal Service, the military and welfare programs like Social Security and food stamps.
But up to 750,000 workers could be sent home each day and would not be paid until the shutdown was over, according to the Congressional Budget Office.