ROK missile autonomy not goodwill gift

The United States has agreed to lift restrictions on the Republic of Korea's ability to develop missiles after ROK President Moon Jae-in met with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday. The US restrictions previously banned Seoul from developing or possessing missiles with a range exceeding 800 kilometers.

In 1979, the ROK agreed to limit its ballistic missile range to 180 km in exchange for the transfer of missile technology from the US. The limitations were relaxed in 2001, and the ROK was allowed to develop ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300 km with a maximum warhead weight of 500 kilograms. In 2017, the payload cap was eliminated while the range limit was extended to 800 km.

As of last week, after 42 years, all restrictions have now been lifted. In exchange, Seoul is contributing more－about $1.04 billion this year, an increase of 13.9 percent from the previous year－to the US' expenditure on its troops in the ROK. The US deploys 28,500 troops in the ROK now.

By lifting all restrictions on the ROK's missile development, the US is trying to show the stability and maturity of the US-ROK alliance and trying to prompt Pyongyang to return to the negotiation table. In his meeting with Moon, Biden said he would be willing to meet the Democratic People's Republic of Korea leader under the right conditions.

But the move will only aggravate the mutual suspicion of the ROK and the DPRK, and build up tensions on the peninsula.

Also, by giving a green light to the ROK's missile program, the US wants to show the world, particularly China, that apart from Japan, the US also has the ability to pull the ROK into its trench.

However, the move is more symbolic, as the ROK has neither the necessary technology to develop advanced missiles nor the money or the intentions to develop a huge arsenal of missiles. That goes against its long-term commitment to denuclearization and peaceful development of the Korean Peninsula.

That the ROK informed Beijing of the Moon-Biden summit immediately after it was concluded shows its reluctance to provoke China, as it knows no matter how close its relations with the US becomes, which country is the main stakeholder and guarantee for regional peace, stability and development.

To grant the ROK the autonomy to develop weapons is by no means a gift of peace and goodwill from the US to the Northeast Asia, as the ROK is once again being treated as a piece on the US' geopolitical chess board.