US urges S. Korea's LG Uplus to switch from China's Huawei to 'trusted vendors'

The United States urged South Korean telecom operator LG Plus to ditch Huawei products in favor of more "trusted vendors."

US deputy assistant secretary of state Robert Strayer said that the US considers using Huawei products as a severe security issue.

However, the US is not keen on providing a financial incentive to LG Plus for it to do so.

Among major South Korean telecom companies, only LG Plus is using Huawei equipment.

The other two, SK and KT, have banned Huawei products in their 5G networks, prompting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to hail them as clean carriers.

According to Strayer, deploying Huawei technology allows the Chinese Communist Party to disrupt it or use it as a surveillance tool.

Thus, there would be growing demand for trusted vendors that "can't be disrupted by an authoritarian state," adds Strayer.

Strayer added that it would not be too expensive to switch equipment, as it amounts to less than 10 percent of a telecom operator's overall operating budget.