A discussion on the Ukraine war will be included on the agenda of the upcoming summit between Presidents Yoon Suk Yeol and Joe Biden, but the U.S. will not ask Korea to provide military aid to Kyiv, a high-ranking U.S. official said, Tuesday (local time).
“We absolutely had every expectation that the war in Ukraine will be discussed as a part of this state visit, but we certainly would not speak for President Yoon and for any additional support he may or may not be willing to provide,” U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said at a press conference with Korean press.
“Every nation has to decide for itself whether or not it will support Ukraine and to what degree it’s willing to support Ukraine. Some nations provide advanced lethal capabilities, some nations do not. We respect those sovereign decisions,” he said.
The comments came amid chilled relations between Korea and Russia, after Moscow issued a stern response to comments Yoon made in a recent media interview that Seoul may provide military aid to Ukraine if there is a situation that the international community cannot condone. This was a major shift from Korea’s previous Ukraine policy of providing only humanitarian aid to the war-torn country.
The remarks were viewed as Yoon’s strategic choice before visiting the U.S., because his administration sees greater benefits from answering U.S. and European calls to provide Kyiv with military support rather than maintaining lukewarm relations with Russia.
Against this backdrop, Kirby’s remarks are interpreted as the U.S. reiterating its own principles, while allaying concerns that Washington might pressure Seoul to provide military support for Ukraine during the Yoon-Biden summit.
“It is up to the elected leadership in those countries and the people of those countries to determine how much support if they’re willing to give support and how much support they’re willing to give to Ukraine,” Kirby said.
Regarding Korea’s relations with China when it comes to the Indo-Pacific strategies of Seoul and Washington, Kirby said the allies do not have “a divergent view of China’s role in the Indo-Pacific” region. He added that the U.S. is not seeking a conflict with China and that the allies view the challenges and opportunities stemming from Beijing “in a similar fashion.”
“President Biden’s view is not about asking what more can the Republic of Korea do for the U.S. with respect to China or any other issue in the Indo-Pacific or the world,” Kirby said. “It is about asking what more can we do together as allies to be additional guarantors of peace and security in the region and continue to be a force for good in the world.”
Unlike the U.S. and Japan, Korea does not define China as a country that poses challenges to its Indo-Pacific strategy. Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy, announced by Yoon on Dec. 28 last year, defines China as “a key partner for achieving prosperity and peace in the Indo-Pacific region” and Seoul will “nurture a sounder and more mature relationship as we pursue shared interests based on mutual respect and reciprocity, guided by international norms and rules.”
Kirby did not comment on a Financial Times report that that the U.S. asked Korea to prevent Korean chip companies from compensating a shortage of semiconductors in China if Beijing bans the sale of American chipmaker Micron’s memory chips. But he implied that the U.S. wants Korea to join efforts to keep in check the rapid technological advancements of Chinese chipmakers.
“This would obviously include efforts to coordinate our investments in the semiconductor sector to secure critical technologies and to address economic coercion,” Kirby said. “And we obviously expect that the state visit this week will further strengthen our cooperation on all those fronts.”
President Yoon Suk Yeol pays tribute to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C., Tuesday (local time). Yonhap
Meanwhile, Yoon started the second day of his state visit by paying tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Korean War at Arlington National Cemetery. Yoon paid tribute and presented a memorial tablet engraved with the phrase, “We will never forget, forgotten no more.”
