A Billion for Tribute, But Not One More Cent for Defense!

Update:   Guess what?  GI Korea had it exactly right all along.   

All hail GI Korea!   Wow.  Talk about nailing it.

Let’s compare the $780 million dollar cost sharing agreement to the amount of money Seoul sends to North Korea.   While North Korea was busy creating international stability with their ballistic missile and nuclear bomb tests, the South Korean government was busy sending them a record amount of humanitarian aid.   The South Korean government sent $227 million dollars worth of humanitarian aid while private donors in South Korea sent $70 million dollars worth of humanitarian aid for a grand total of roughly $300 million dollars in humanitarian aid to North Korea.  

On top of the humanitarian aid, the Korean government this year sent 650 billion won or about $690 million dollars in inter-Korean economic aid to North Korea to finance joint Korean ventures such as the Kaesong Industrial Project the and Kumgang Tour operations.  

So if you add up the humanitarian aid and economic aid sent to North Korea by South Korea this year, it comes up to nearly $1 billion dollars in aid while the South Korean government payed only 40% of the cost sharing for the US-ROK alliance for a total $735 million dollars.  In effect the South Korean government is willing to pay the North Koreans more money than they are willing to pay for cost sharing of the US-ROK alliance that has been responsible for ensuring the economic, political, and national security of the nation for over 50 years.

Then to make matters worse the US negotiators had to then haggle for months to get the South Korean government to raise their cost sharing contributions by a only 6.6% to $780 million dollars this year while planning on continuing to give North Korea a billion dollars in aid next year despite their provacative ballistic missile and nuclear tests.   

I have one small quibble, and I invite GI Korea to straighten me out here:  I think the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund includes funds used for humanitarian aid, meaning that the total sent to North Korea really is about $690 million, not including another $70 million in private donations.  Add those numbers together, and it’s slightly more than what the South Korean government  pays us for defending  its existence.   Meaning, my little quibble does no violence to GI Korea’s point:  South Korea can afford to pay for much, much more of the cost of  its own defense.  It simply chooses not to.

It makes you want to cry for all the tax money this costs us, and for where that money really ends up.  We are certainly not getting our money’s worth.

Still, this is one point where the Pentagon is hard-core.  I sat within ten feet of Richard Lawless when he told the International Relations Committee that U.S. patience with this has worn very thin, and that South Korean recalcitrance to pay up would be reflected in what defense capabilities the U.S. side keeps in Korea.  Let’s hope we approach this with as many pushy demands for renegotiation as the Koreans have with the SOFA.