Washington is poised to change the mission of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to prioritize regional contingencies, particularly a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, and while South Korea will likely accept the shift, it will demand concessions in return.

The Trump administration has not formally announced a change to USFK’s role, but the strategic shift is already underway. The Pentagon’s quiet removal of multiple Patriot systems from South Korea for redeployment to the Middle East signal that Washington no longer treats the Korean Peninsula as a distinct theater of war.