Its no secret that the U.S. doesn’t trust Huawei’s networking equipment. It has been alleged quite a few times that Huawei’s equipment might allow the Chinese government to spy and snoop around, these allegations lead to speculation late last year that Huawei could step out of the U.S. market for good. Apparently Washington had the same concerns when South Korea allowed Huawei to develop its advanced wireless network, so Seoul has reportedly agreed to route all sensitive communications with the U.S. through networks that don’t use Huawei equipment. This according to unnamed U.S. officials who spoke with The Wall Street Journal.
According to the report, U.S. officials first raised these concerns in meetings with their South Korean counterparts in recent months, maintaining that the Chinese company’s equipment could be used for spying on its communications as well as for snooping on networks being utilized by U.S. military and intelligence officials stationed in the country. South Korea plays host to over 28,000 U.S. troops, stationed there as a preemptive measure against possible aggression by North Korea. So as to protect said communications, South Korea has reportedly agreed to not connect them to any networks using Huawei equipment. Huawei hasn’t commented on this report, whereas Jennifer Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department said that despite the U.S. expressing concerns in the past, “these decisions were made by the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea alone.”
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