Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump's nominee to be under secretary of defense for policy, prepares for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, March 4, in Washington, D.C. AFP-Yonhap

U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee for a top Pentagon post threw his support Tuesday behind efforts to bolster South Korea's role in the alliance with the United States as he addressed a question over the ongoing efforts for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) to Seoul.

In his written statement for a Senate confirmation hearing, Elbridge Colby, the nominee to be under secretary of defense for policy, made the remarks, stressing the "critical" Seoul-Washington alliance should continue to be updated to "reflect the broader geopolitical and military circumstances" facing the two nations.

"If confirmed, I would need to review this delicate issue carefully," Colby said in his response to a question about what conditions he would recommend as the threshold for the OPCON transfer from the U.S. to South Korea.

"On the whole, however, I believe that President Trump's vision of foreign policy involves empowering capable and willing allies like South Korea, and thus I support efforts to bolster South Korea's role in the alliance," he added.

Seoul and Washington have been working on meeting a wide range of conditions needed for the OPCON transition. Conditions include South Korea's capabilities to lead combined forces, its strike and air defense capabilities, and a regional security environment conducive to such a handover.

South Korea handed over operational control of its troops to the U.S.-led U.N. Command during the 1950-53 Korean War. It was then transferred to the two allies' Combined Forces Command when the command was launched in 1978. Wartime operational control still remains in the U.S. hands, while South Korea retook peacetime OPCON in 1994.

During an interview with Yonhap News Agency in May last year, Colby expressed his backing for the swift OPCON transition, saying the Asian ally should undertake "overwhelming" responsibility for its own defense.

In his written statement, Colby portrayed the alliance with South Korea as "critical for U.S. interests and a foundation stone of the U.S. geopolitical position in Asia."

Commenting on America's extended deterrence commitment to the Asian ally, he said the U.S. must ensure the strategic deterrence and defense posture is "credible and stout."

"Consistent with the President and Secretary's approach around the world, I believe we need to be clear-eyed, frank, and realistic with our allies about the nature of the threats we face and the allocation of responsibilities among ourselves, in the service of ensuring our alliances are best defended and strategically sustainable," he said.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance greets his friend and President Donald Trump's nominee to be under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby, center, during Colby's confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, March 4, in Washington, D.C. AFP-Yonhap

The nominee cast North Korea as a "severe direct military threat to South Korea on multiple levels."

"It also poses a direct nuclear, missile, and unconventional threat to the United States, Japan, and other allies," he said.

He pointed out that improving U.S. homeland missile defense systems is "vital to countering growing rogue state threats from countries like North Korea."

During the hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee, Colby said he does not want North Korea to take over South Korea but asserted the need for wealthy allies to "do more" for their security.

He also voiced skepticism over the prospects of a multilateral alliance in the Indo-Pacific akin to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as he pointed to South Korea's recent political dynamics.

"I don't want to abandon the Middle East. I don't want a nuclear Iran. I don't want Russia to run roughshod over Europe. I don't want North Korea to take over South Korea," he said.

"But if we know as a factual, empirical matter that we can't do all those things in even remotely concurrent timelines, don't we need to have a credible plan for how to do so, and I think part of that is greater resources ... and I think that reconciliation hopefully ... will be part of that," he added.

He went on to say that the "secret sauce" in efforts to deal with multiple challenges is the role of allies.

"They can do more and they have done more. Japan is an incredibly wealthy economy. Taiwan ... Look at the investments that the president got for TSMC yesterday," he said, referring to the announcement that the Taiwanese tech titan will invest $100 billion to build advanced chip manufacturing facilities in the United States.

"These are incredibly wealthy societies. Why are they not spending at levels commensurate with the threat? I don't understand."

Expressing his discomfort over Taiwan's recent defense budget cut, Colby cited what he called former Defense Secretary James Mattis' remark: "We can't care more about your defense than you can."

"I have been trying, in my communication and my recommendations for policy vis-a-vis Taiwan, to induce them in whatever way possible to become, say, more like South Korea," he said.

"It's a very plausible model with a much more serious military, because I don't think it's fair to Americans to ask Americans and our servicemen and women to suffer if our allies are not pulling their weight."

Asked to share his thoughts about a NATO-like alliance in the Indo-Pacific, Colby pointed out the "encouraging" trilateral partnership among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan but raised questions over the durability of such a multilateral partnership.

"If we look at South Korean political dynamics over the last six to eight months, it's not clear that that's going to be enduring," he said, apparently referring to a period of political uncertainty caused by President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment over his martial law attempt in December.

"I think there is a lot of spadework and political capital that's put into a multilateral organization, whereas I think something may be building up to have more multilateralization in the region but not the huge ambition of an Asia NATO." (Yonhap)