Lee's South Korea Tests Colby's 'Model Ally' Claim
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- Elbridge Colby, US Undersecretary of War, called South Korea a "model ally" during a recent Seoul visit — a characterization the author disputes, noting the Lee administration sent $500,000 in "humanitarian aid" to Iran and was unhelpful on the US campaign against Tehran.
- Lee Jae Myung has called US forces in South Korea after WWII an "occupying force" and was accused of involvement in an unauthorized US$8 million transfer to North Korea while governor of Gyeonggi Province — charges he denies, though his then-subordinate has been convicted.
- Kim Min-Seok, South Korea's recently departed prime minister now seeking to lead the ruling Democratic Party, was imprisoned as a young man for a pro-North Korea attack on the US ambassador's residence; his elder brother in the ruling party called Trump's America "the apex of Yankee imperialism."
- The Lee administration has provoked Washington by picking fights over DMZ management procedures, having South Korean prosecutors improperly access restricted areas at Osan Air Base, and pushing wartime operational control transfer "more for political reasons" than actual readiness.
- South Korea has declined to help defend Taiwan — with Lee saying as a presidential candidate it was "none of South Korea's business" — and is unwilling to permit US forces in South Korea to redeploy for a Taiwan contingency.
- Lee Jae Myung drew a formal Israeli government complaint after social media posts equating Israeli military actions with the Holocaust, later offering a "half-hearted, incoherent excuse."
- Former Rep. Michelle Steel is finally being dispatched as US ambassador to Seoul after a year-long vacancy; the author urges her to investigate post-2020 electoral fraud allegations and review the green cards of relatives of anti-American politicians.
Why it matters: With a new US ambassador (Michelle Steel) finally headed to Seoul, Washington faces a choice between ignoring or engaging what the author frames as South Korea's leftward authoritarian drift — with Taiwan defense, the Iran campaign, and Indo-Pacific alliance cohesion all implicated. The author cites Venezuela under Chavez and Turkey after 2014 as past US failures that ignored similar warning signs.
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