South Korean President Lee to meet with Trump in Washington on Monday

"SEOUL, South Korea En route to his first summit with President Trump, South Korea's president has pushed back against U.S. pressure to refocus his country's 71-year-old military alliance with the U.S. away from deterring North Korea and toward countering China. "This is not an issue we can easily agree with," Lee Jae-myung told reporters during his flight to Washington, D.C., hinting at the challenges waiting for him at the White House."

"The U.S. has some 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea. For about two decades, it has called for "strategic flexibility" to deploy them to meet security challenges away from the Korean Peninsula. And it wants South Korea's support, including potentially sending troops to other countries and regions. South Korea has previously sent soldiers to assist the U.S. in Vietnam and Iraq. But it considers North Korea, not China, its main threat, and does not want to get dragged into a conflict with China."

""For the South Koreans, what's at stake is really alliance credibility, and also defense and deterrence against North Korea," says Andrew Yeo, an expert on Asia and U.S.-South Korea relations at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Lee Jae-myung said over the weekend that he will raise a full range of issues related to North Korea with President Trump, including the need to engage diplomatically. Pyongyang continues to insist that it has no interest in dialogue with Seoul or Washington."

South Korea's president pushed back on U.S. pressure to refocus the 71-year-old U.S.-South Korea military alliance from deterring North Korea toward countering China. The United States seeks to modernize the alliance and exercise "strategic flexibility," including deploying South Korean forces beyond the Korean Peninsula and potentially supporting U.S. operations in other regions. South Korea maintains that North Korea is its primary threat and fears being drawn into a conflict with China. South Korea previously contributed troops to Vietnam and Iraq, and leaders emphasize alliance credibility, defense, deterrence, and the need for diplomatic engagement with North Korea despite Pyongyang's refusal to dialog.

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