US president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for senior defence official may signal his incoming administration’s move to adjust the role of US troops in South Korea to focus more on containing China, analysts said.
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On December 22, Elbridge Colby, who was the deputy assistant secretary of defence for strategy and force development during Trump’s first term, was announced as the next under secretary of defence for policy, the No. 3 rank in the Pentagon responsible for the formation of national security and defence policy.
On his Truth Social account, Trump wrote that Colby would work closely with the secretary of defence nominee Pete Hegseth to “restore” Washington’s military power and achieve a policy of “peace through strength”.
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Colby has been calling for US military resources to be concentrated on a denial strategy against China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific, instead of dispersing US defence resources to other regions such as Europe, aligning with Trump’s campaign pledge to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
A major contrast between traditional US strategies in the Indo-Pacific region and Colby’s overall policy agenda appears in the roles played by the US Forces Korea (USFK) stationed in South Korea, a contingent that primarily focuses on responding to North Korean threats.
Traditional defence officials in Trump’s previous administration advocated for the USFK’s role in responding to North Korean threats with a more hawkish stance against its nuclear and missile development.
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However, Colby is sceptical that Pyongyang will give up its nuclear weapons and believes that US troops in South Korea must instead be used to contain China’s military threat, leaving Seoul to defend itself against North Korea.