By Leon Whyte
The cost burden of U.S. Forces Korea has become contentious, and is likely to remain that way.
U.S. President Barack Obama has made the strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific a cornerstone of his foreign policy. Under this policy, the United States will allocate more resources to the Asia-Pacific region, including South Korea. However, around the time that the Obama administration was introducing the strategic rebalance policy, Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011. The act mandates cuts across U.S. government spending, known as sequestration, and includes cuts to the defense budget. Congress designed the mechanism of sequestration to present legislators with an incentive to overcome domestic partisan disagreements about passing a budget that included tax hikes and spending cuts, but attempts at compromise failed [PDF] and the deep percentage-driven cuts mandated under the act took effect. The arbitrary nature of the sequestration has reduced the ability of the U.S. Department of Defense to plan resource allocation strategically. Ongoing contingencies in the Middle East and Eastern Europe that require U.S. attention and resources have exacerbated the problem.
As the United States reduces its military budget by $487 billion in planned cuts over the next ten years on top of a potential additional $500 billion in cuts mandated by sequestration, South Korea will have to assume more responsibility for its own defense. For South Korea, the reduction of the size of the U.S. Army to its lowest level since the end of World War II is of particular concern because any major North Korean contingency would require a massive ground force to stabilize the peninsula. South Korean analysts see the troop cuts, as well as U.S. reluctance to become involved in operations in places like Syria, as signs that South Korea needs to increase its ground force capabilities. Indeed, the ROK has announced a 5.3 percent increase in defense spending for 2015, the highest rate of defense growth since 2011.
Read the full story at The Diplomat