U.S.-S. Korea alliance questioned

SEOUL, South Korea -- As President Donald Trump seeks a nuclear deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next week in Vietnam, some in Seoul are wondering whether the fate of Washington's decades-long military alliance with South Korea could be at stake.

Much of this worry is linked to Trump's repeated assertions the U.S. military deployment in South Korea is too costly, and to his surprise suspension of some U.S. military exercises with South Korea -- including a major summertime drill -- as a concession to Kim after their first summit in Singapore last year. Added to this concern are policies by South Korea's liberal President Moon Jae-in critics say favor engagement with North Korea at the expense of the alliance with Washington.

The broader U.S.-South Korean alliance, sealed during the bloodshed of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War, won't be on the negotiating table during the summit in Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday. But some observers say its long-term future could be in doubt and Trump may eventually withdraw some of the 28,500 U.S. troops deployed in South Korea.

"The Korea-U.S. alliance is seriously ill now," Kim Taewoo, the former head of the government-funded Korea Institute for National Unification in South Korea, said in a recent speech.

U.S. and South Korean officials maintain everything is fine.

After agreeing to increase its contribution to the cost of the U.S. military presence this year, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said last week Washington insists it has no plans to adjust troop levels. During a phone call with Moon on Tuesday, Trump also said U.S.-South Korea relations are better than ever, according to Moon's office.

Trump repeated Friday drawing down American forces was not on the table for his talks with Kim, but he has previously threatened to pull them from South Korea and Japan if those nations refused to pay more. After the Singapore summit, Trump also told reporters, "I want to bring our soldiers (in South Korea) back home." While announcing the suspension of a major summertime military drill, Trump called the exercises "very provocative" and "tremendously expensive."

U.S. defense officials are not planning any troop reductions but some have indicated they would not be surprised if Trump puts reductions on the table as part of his negotiations with Kim. Other possibilities worrying many in Seoul include Trump will suspend or drastically downsize another major set of military drills this spring, or he'll settle for a deal where the North abandons its long-range missile program aimed at the U.S. while not addressing the North's shorter-range missiles targeting Seoul and Tokyo.

An extended stoppage of comprehensive training between the allies could weaken the militaries' fighting capacity, especially since many U.S. soldiers rotate out of South Korea after less than a year of service, some experts say.

"Soldiers' fighting power comes from training. If there aren't any (big) joint drills for one year, we'll have (U.S.) soldiers who have never experienced such drills," said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.

North Korea, on the other hand, which has described the drills as preparation for invasion and responded with its own costly exercises, would likely benefit. North Korea has said it was forced to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls American hostility.

During the Singapore summit, Kim said he was committed to the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," which has previously meant the North would only denuclearize when the United States withdraws all its troops from South Korea and stops military drills with the South. In December, North Korea's state media said it would never unilaterally abandon its nuclear program unless Washington first removes its nuclear threat.

Some are also concerned about reports Trump may agree to declare the end of the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, as a security guarantee for the North. Such a declaration, considered as a preliminary step before signing a peace treaty to formally end the war, could provide the North with a basis to step up its calls for a U.S. troop pullout.

"If our security is shaken, foreign investments will be driven out of the country and stock prices will plummet," said the analyst Moon, a retired brigadier general who took part in numerous military talks with North Korea.

Part of the debate in South Korea reflects a deep historical division over the U.S. military.

For some, the U.S. military rescued South Korea from the surprise North Korean invasion starting the Korean War. Others blame the United States for the 1945 division of the Korean Peninsula. Rallies focusing on the United States, both pro and anti, routinely take place in Seoul, but surveys show a majority of South Koreans support the U.S. troop deployment.