President Lee Jae-myung said Wednesday that "self-reliant defense is the most fundamental of fundamentals amid an unstable international situation," responding to the Donald Trump administration's new National Defense Strategy (NDS) stating that "South Korea has the capability to assume primary responsibility for deterrence against North Korea."
The president posted on X (formerly Twitter), linking to an article analyzing the new NDS content from the Trump administration that moves toward strengthening South Korea's responsibility for its own defense.
"It is inconceivable that the Republic of Korea, which spends 1.4 times North Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) on defense and possesses the world's fifth-largest military, cannot defend itself," Lee wrote. "Firm self-reliant defense and peace on the Korean Peninsula enable sustainable economic growth."
The Trump administration stated in the NDS that "South Korea has the capability to assume primary responsibility for deterrence against North Korea with critical but more limited US support." It added that "this rebalancing of responsibility aligns with US interests in updating the US military posture on the Korean Peninsula." The message indicates that South Korea, as an ally, should invest more resources than before in building conventional deterrence against the North and preventing North Korean provocations.
Analysts expect this will accelerate the Lee Jae-myung administration's push for the transfer of wartime operational control and modernization of US Forces Korea capabilities. The two countries discussed such "role adjustments" in the Joint Fact Sheet containing the results of tariff and security negotiations last November and in the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) joint press statement last month.
