Significance. Strategic flexibility — the concept that U.S. (and potentially South Korean) forces stationed on the Korean Peninsula will deploy regionally without explicit prior approval — remains one of the most contentious defense issues between Washington and Seoul. It has been conspicuously absent from electoral discourse for the presidential election.
Significance. South Korea’s presidential election domestic debate focused on candidate personalities, recent political events, and party politics, amid a strategic landscape reshaped by Donald Trump’s presidency and growing demands regarding tariffs, United States Forces Korea (USFK), and U.S.-China rivalry.
On both sides of politics in South Korea, Australia’s currently seen as little more than a mine, farm, beach, or a place to learn English – its relevance increasing only momentarily because of tighter resource markets and Australia’s increasing appetite for military hardware.
