Discord within the South Korea-U.S. alliance has grown hard to ignore. Rep. Chung Chung-rai of the Democratic Party of Korea, who until recently led the ruling party, moved the destination of an overseas parliamentary audit from the United States to Europe because of delays in U.S. visa processing. It also emerged that the National Intelligence Service was excluded, at Washington's request, from a trilateral working-level meeting held in June among South Korea, the United States and Japan to discuss responses to North Korean hacking. The NIS acknowledged that "there were some misunderstandings several months ago." Then, in an unusual move, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump issued a formal statement on intelligence cooperation between the two countries, saying it expects South Korea "to uphold the standards of an alliance that has lasted for decades," and adding that this applies "particularly to matters involving intelligence and counterintelligence." It amounted to a public display of dissatisfaction and distrust toward the South Korean government's handling of classified information.
The government denies any rift, insisting that trust between Seoul and Washington remains solid. On the visa issue involving Chung, it has argued that it is inappropriate to link an individual case to the overall relationship. Yet official explanations cannot cover up the unusual currents surfacing on multiple fronts. Michelle Steel, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, has not even scheduled an introductory meeting with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who oversees North Korea policy, more than two months after taking up the post. That suggests the trust damaged by the minister's public remarks in March about a North Korean uranium enrichment facility has yet to be restored. Gen. Jin Young-seung, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a parliamentary audit on the 8th of this month that U.S. restrictions on sharing intelligence about North Korea's nuclear program have continued for more than six months since the minister's remarks. That leaves the NIS explanation that intelligence cooperation between the two countries is active looking hollow.
The widening gap in the alliance can no longer be left unattended. If the alliance, the foundation of both foreign and security policy and of economic security, is shaken, neither national safety nor stable economic growth can be guaranteed. The first priority is to restore Washington's confidence in Seoul's security officials and to revive intelligence cooperation. The government would do well to abandon the complacent expectation that layers of accumulated misunderstanding and distrust will dissolve simply through progress on investment projects in the United States. Seoul is seeking a summit with Washington around a high-level visit to the United States and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' meeting in November, but it is doubtful that exchanging diplomatic rhetoric, without addressing the source of the friction, will resolve distrust that has run this deep. This is a time to devote every effort to mending the cracks in the alliance, including considering a reshuffle of the security team.