A senior Pentagon official has described South Korea as a "role model" in its willingness to take "more of the lead" in defending against North Korea and in its defense spending, as Washington prioritizes deterring Chinese threats while calling on allies to take on greater security burdens.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby made the remarks in a social media post on Thursday as he commented on a recent phone conversation between South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"South Korea continues to be a role model in its willingness to take more of the lead in a strong defense against the DPRK and in its spending on defense," Colby wrote on X, formerly Twitter. DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"We and the ROK are closely aligned on the need to modernize the Alliance in response to the regional security environment. We will work closely with Seoul to ensure a strategically sustainable Alliance that is ready to defend against shared threats," he added. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
His remarks apparently underscored US President Donald Trump's expectations that allies will make greater efforts for their own defense, backed by their increased spending on defense, as the United States focuses on countering the "pacing threat" from an increasingly assertive China.
The remarks came amid expectations that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Trump might discuss Seoul's defense spending and the future direction of the alliance in the name of alliance "modernization" when they meet in a White House summit that Trump said will take place in the coming weeks.
The Pentagon has said that South Korea and other Asian allies are also subject to the "global standard" of spending 5 percent of their gross domestic product, a goal that North Atlantic Treaty Organization members have agreed to achieve by 2035 following Trump's demand.
Colby has been tasked with crafting the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy to prioritize increasing allies' "burden-sharing" and deterring Chinese threats in the Indo-Pacific. Hegseth directed that a final NDS draft be provided to him no later than Aug. 31.
