Staff Reports
Joe Biden’s failed foreign policy has once again hit a wall with another diplomatic setback, and this time it’s over a spy scandal involving South Korea, one of America’s historic allies. Crippling crises in the Taiwan Strait and Ukraine have made managing diplomatic ties with South Korea an urgent priority.
NEW: The Biden administration’s spy scandal has been revealed by the 'Pentagon Papers' leak, inflaming diplomatic relations with South Korea.
Who hasn’t Joe Biden pissed off at this point? https://t.co/ILUpssFvLs
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) April 10, 2023
The recent “Pentagon Papers” leak of Department of Defense documents provide evidence of a spy scandal that is putting the Biden administration’s diplomatic tightrope walk to the test. The leaked report reveals South Korea’s reluctance to support Ukraine and potentially be drawn into a proxy war with Russia. What’s more concerning is that the US has been spying on one of its major allies in Asia using signals intelligence.
The New York Times reported the leak, giving credibility to the report’s sourcing that remains up to readers to conclude its content. The report clarifies that the leak is about South Korea’s hesitancy to be part of the Ukrainian crisis by providing ammunition that may end up in Ukraine. The South Korean government is reluctant to offer lethal weapons to any country at war, but the leaked papers reveal that the Biden administration was urging the South Korean government to provide deadly aid to Ukraine, despite official policy.
The scandal involves top foreign advisers to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Yi Mun-hui, the secretary for foreign affairs, and Kim Sung-han, the National Security Adviser, who resigned due to unknown reasons last month. A group of opposition lawmakers in South Korea calls for an investigation into the United States’ spying act and harshly criticized it for the violation of South Korea’s sovereignty.
Yang Uk, a weapons expert at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, pointed out that the scandal puts South Korea in a difficult position, suspecting the US to spy on top defense and security officials. This incident is bad news ahead of the South Korea-U.S. summit, and it is hurting public sentiment towards the US after seven decades of alliance.
The latest scandal dealing with the Biden administration’s incompetence in managing diplomatic relations and inappropriate spying on one of America’s historic allies is a significant failure for Biden’s foreign policy.
