Washington and Seoul scale back military exercise
Despite the scaling down of the war game between Washington and Seoul, there are concerns that slow progress in US-DPRK talks could still deter denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula.
On Wednesday, US Secretary James Mattis told reporters that the springtime “Foal Eagle” exercise will be “reduced in scope” and that it is being “reorganized a bit” to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea over its denuclearization progress.
Foal Eagle is the biggest of the regular joint exercises held by the United States and the Republic of Korea, but Pyongyang has long condemned it as preparations for invasion.
Last week, the DPRK newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial that the US-ROK joint military drills are “directly against the inter-Korean military agreement that promised to eliminate practical threats of war and fundamental hostile relations from the Korean Peninsula”.
On Thursday, ROK defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said the decision on whether to halt the joint exercise completely is still under consultation. She said Seoul and Washington have been holding discussions as part of efforts to facilitate dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.
Choi told Yonhap News Agency that the two allies would make a decision before Dec 1, but she refused to elaborate further.
Diplomatic drive
Mattis’ comments were taken as a signal of US willingness to continue its diplomatic drive to induce nuclear disarmament on the peninsula, particularly ahead of a possible second summit between US President Donald Trump and the DPRK’s top leader Kim Jong-un.
But Wang Junsheng, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the pace of the denuclearization is relatively slow and there is an apparent lack of progress in Washington’s recent negotiations with Pyongyang.
“The US may take options such as calling off or scaling back major combined exercises with the ROK as a move to show its presence and influence on the Korean Peninsula issues,” Wang said.
But he added that more recent negotiations appeared to have made little headway, with Pyongyang upset by Washington’s insistence that international sanctions must remain until it gives up its nuclear weapons.
Earlier this month, a KCNA report said Pyongyang is “seriously” considering returning to its weapons drive if Washington did not end its tough economic sanctions. It also accused the US of playing a “double game”, implicitly criticizing Washington’s apparent reluctance toward the signing of a peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday defended Washington’s strategy on the peninsula, stressing that the diplomatic progress on the Korean Peninsula “should not be faster than Pyongyang takes steps to give up its nuclear weapons”.