South Korea opposes US moving air defense systems…

South Korea opposes moving U.S. air defense assets out of the country but is not in a position to make demands, President Lee Jae Myung said on Tuesday.

Lee informed the Cabinet that “USFK may send some air defense systems overseas in accordance with its own military needs. Although we have expressed opposition, the reality is that we cannot fully advance our position.”

USFK refers to US Forces Korea, Washington’s command authority for forces in South Korea, with approximately 28,500 personnel.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Friday that Washington is in talks with Seoul to redeploy Patriot air defense batteries to South Korea for use in the Middle East conflict.

Assuaging concerns about South Korea’s defense preparedness against North Korea, Lee argued that even if resources were moved out of the country, it would not cause a “major setback” to its ability to deter North Korea, according to a CNBC translation of his comments in Korean.

Seoul’s relations with Pyongyang remain tense, with the latter’s leader Kim Jong Un calling the South “the most hostile entity.” Analysts have consistently assessed that the combined South Korean-American forces on the peninsula are superior to North Korean forces.

“Temporarily redeploying Patriot missile defense systems and even limited quantities of offensive munitions would not rattle U.S. allies in Asia because North Korea is well deterred by South Korean conventional forces and American nuclear weapons,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

However, the Patriot remains a crucial element in Seoul’s defense against North Korea.

“Although South Korea has developed and deployed its own sophisticated missile defense systems, such as Cheongung, the Patriot system remains an important component of its air defense architecture,” said Lami Kim, Korea Chair in Advanced Technologies, National Security and Defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

South Korea’s Cheongung surface-to-air missile system, developed by LIG Nex1 and Hanwha Aerospace, reportedly saw its first combat operations when the UAE deployed it against Iranian projectiles.

South Korean media have reported several flights of US military transport aircraft to Osan Air Base since the start of the Iranian conflict, noting that the C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster aircraft seen are generally used to transport Patriot systems and THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems.

The US move to deploy Patriot defense systems to South Korea in the Middle East comes against the backdrop of reports that air defense systems used by Gulf nations were “dangerously low” on interceptors to defend against Iranian missile and drone attacks.

IISS’s Kim said U.S. missile supplies are already under considerable pressure as Iran continues to retaliate and that the conflict will likely be prolonged.

If the redeployment were to happen, it would fuel the perception that the United States is prioritizing its own interests in the Middle East over those of an Asian ally, according to Philip Shetler-Jones, senior fellow for Indo-Pacific security at the Royal United Services Institute, a U.K.-based think tank.

Another reasonable perception would be that if this happened at this stage, the United States would not have planned Iran’s response well.

“Another reasonable perception would be that, if this happened at this stage, the United States had not planned Iran’s response well,” he said, adding that if Seoul gained “model ally” status by spending more on defense and becoming self-sufficient, “the consequence could be that you would be left alone more.”

Credit: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/10/south-korea-patriot-transfer-iran-war-air-defenses.html

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