Trump will seemingly attempt to resume his relationship with Kim in his second time period.
This units up a state of affairs the place the USA favours a dictatorship over a treaty ally in its overseas coverage. That may be a shift extra exceptional than the approaching abandonment of Ukraine, which isn’t a proper US ally.
Trump additionally has a protracted historical past of demanding US allies pay for American safety ensures. He has been significantly excessive concerning South Korea. Simply final month, he described South Korea as a “cash machine”, saying he desires to multiply by 9 occasions the price of stationing US troops in South Korea.
The place NATO allies can collectively grapple with Trump’s calls for, South Korea’s place is far more durable. It’s remoted in northeast Asia. It faces three nuclear autocracies on its doorstep, and its relations with Japan are poor (due to historic grievances courting to Japanese imperialism throughout World Battle II). It stands alone in opposition to Trump ought to he act as he did in his final presidency.
This might simply provoke an alliance disaster. Professional-alliance South Korean conservatives is perhaps keen to accede to Trump’s enormous monetary demand to forestall an alliance fallout. However the public blowback can be intense, and the South Korean left, which is presently in opposition, would use it to pummel the federal government as weak and craven. The approval score of South Korea’s present, conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, is at an all-time low of simply 19 per cent, which means he seemingly lacks the general public help to appease Trump.
