Donald Trump looks set to bring shift in US approach to allies, North Korea, diplomacy, tariffs

Trump’s swearing-in

SEOUL: Under his America First leitmotif, incoming US President Donald Trump appears poised to bring a shift in the United States' approach to the alliance with South Korea, North Korea's unabated nuclear threats, trade, and other key issues.

Trump will take the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday as the US 47th president amid expectations that he will employ a diplomatic playbook that seeks to curtail America's costly overseas engagement, pressure allies to shoulder more security burden, and redress US trade deficits for the sake of American interests.

His swearing-in comes as South Korea is reeling from the aftermath of now-impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law bid last month, with the current period of political uncertainty feared to weaken Seoul's hands in policy coordination with the Trump administration.

In his second term, Trump's America First credo is expected to be an overarching theme of his administration's policy formulation and implementation, given that he has named stalwart loyalists for Cabinet posts in the absence of the "axis of adults" that can help stably guide the US' foreign and security policy.

US allies like South Korea have now been bracing for the return of Trump's perceived transactional foreign policy approach-a far cry from the Biden administration's formula centring on rebuilding and cementing a network of allies and partners as America's "greatest strategic asset."

"We know the transition from the Biden to the Trump administration represents a significant shift in how the United States approaches allies," Patrick Cronin, chair for Asia-Pacific Security at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told Yonhap News Agency via email. "There is a time for strenuous demands on allies, but now is not that time for South Korea."

Despite the signing of a new cost-sharing agreement for the 2026-30 periods last year, concerns have persisted in South Korea that Trump might demand Seoul increase its financial contributions to the stationing of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea (USFK).

Trump has already asserted the need for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence-much higher than the current 2 percent guideline of the transatlantic alliance. (IANS)

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