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| U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses a press conference in Budapest on Feb. 11. He cautioned U.S. allies against using equipment from Huawei on their soil. AFP |
By Jung Min-ho
Korea is increasingly feeling pressure to take the side of either the United States or China over Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei, which Washington sees as a security threat to its people and allies.
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned countries using equipment from Huawei during his visit to Hungary, saying their partnership with Huawei could damage their future relations with the U.S. government.
"If that equipment is co-located where we have important American systems, it makes it more difficult for us to partner alongside them," Pompeo told reporters in Budapest Monday. "We want to make sure we identify the opportunities and the risks of using that equipment. And then they will get to make their decisions."
Although the message was not aimed at particular countries or companies, Korea has a good reason to be worried after the country's No.3 mobile carrier LG Uplus started setting up Huawei equipment here for the next generation of wireless networks, also known as 5G.
If everything goes as planned, LG Uplus customers will be able to use 5G services from next month.
The Korean government is apparently aware of the great risks posed by the issue and tries to tread carefully.
A day after Pompeo's remarks, a Cheong Wa Dae official refused journalists' requests to comment on the issue.
Huawei, founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer at the People's Liberation Army, denies that the company has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party or has any intention of designing equipment to facilitate eavesdropping, as widely suspected.
But many experts say no Chinese company is fully independent of its government, which can legally require companies to help with gathering intelligence.
