US and South Korea ending joint military drills ‘for diplomacy’
● Decision seen as olive branch to North Korea after summit talks fail
South Korea and the United States have announced they are eliminating joint massive springtime military drills and replacing them with smaller exercises in an effort to support diplomacy aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.
The decision was announced by both countries yesterday, and came after President Donald Trump complained about the cost of joint drills, and suggested they could end after his high-stakes second summit with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un collapsed last week.
The drills’ cancellation is being seen as an olive branch to North Korea, which has always viewed them as an invasion rehearsal. The secretive isolated country regularly carried out test missile launches to coincide with the drills. And while such tests have stopped following the meetings with President Trump, and historic meetings between the leaders of North and South Korea, experts have warned that ending the huge military drills could weaken the allies’ military readiness, with worries that tensions could erupt again in the wake of the failed nuclear summit in Vietnam.
The Pentagon said in a release that the US and South Korean defence chiefs decided to conclude the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle series of exercises.
Acting US Secretary of Defence Patrick Shanahan and South Korean Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo “made clear that the alliance decision to adapt our training programme reflected our desire to reduce tension and support our diplomatic efforts to achieve complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a final, fully verified manner,” the statement said.
Seoul’s Defence Ministry released a similar statement.
Jeong expressed his regrets at the lack of agreement at the Trump-kim summit but hoped Washington and Pyongyang would continue negotiations, the South Korean statement said.
The new training, dubbed “Dong Maeng,” which means “alliance” in English, was set to start today and continue until 12 March.
It will focus on “strategic operational and tactical aspects of general military operations on the Korean Peninsula,” South Korea’s military and the Us-south Koretems, an combined forces command said in a joint statement.
According to US officials, the new training will be done in smaller drills, tabletop exercises and simulations, and will involve smaller units such as battalions and companies rather than massive formations involving thousands of troops, as they had in the past.
Officials said the Pentagon would focus on smaller exercises and mission essential tasks, which include the ability to integrate airstrikes and the use of other weapons sys- drones, surveillance assets, logistics and communications.
Mr Trump has long complained about the cost of military drills with South Korea. After his second summit with Kim ended without any agreement in Hanoi on Thursday, He spoke again about the cost of annual military drills, saying: “It’s a very, very expensive thing and we do have to think about that, too.”
Following his first summit with Kim in Singapore last June, Mr Trump caught many in the United States and South Korea by surprise by suspending the allies’ summertime military drills. He called joint drills “very provocative” and “massively expensive”. The United States and South Korea also have since suspended a few other smaller joint drills.
North Korea’s state media yesterday didn’t immediately comment on the drills’ cancellation.
After the Hanoi summit, the United States and North Korea blamed each other for the breakdown of the talks. But both sides stopped short of pulling out of negotiations.