Esper: US could alter military drills to boost N. Korea talks
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that he is open to the possibility of altering U.S. military activities in South Korea if it would help advance a diplomatic deal with North Korea to eliminate its nuclear program.
Esper, in an interview with reporters flying with him to Seoul, said any changes in military exercises or training would be done in ways that did not jeopardize troops’ combat preparedness. And he said they would be done in consultation with the South Korean government.
He would not say what specific adjustments might be contemplated. The U.S. and South Korea already scaled back their 2018 and 2019 military exercises in the hope that it would help move North Korea toward agreement to give up its nuclear weapons.
So far that has not worked.
“We will adjust our exercise posture, either more or less, depending on what diplomacy may require,” Esper said, adding, “We have to be open to all those things that empower and enable our diplomats” in the nuclear talks.
North Korea has long objected strongly to large-scale American and South Korean military exercises, which it calls preparations for an invasion of the North. President Donald Trump also has criticized the exercises as too costly and provocative, but U.S. military commanders consider them crucial to deterring North Korea and ensuring that any invasion by the North would fail.
“As we consider adjusting — either dialing up or dialing down — exercises, training, stuff like that, we want to do that in close collaboration with our (South) Korean partners, not as a concession to North Korea but, again, as a means to keep the door open to diplomacy,” he said.
Esper said he takes seriously North Korea’s statement that the end of this year is a deadline for the U.S. to change its approach to the nuclear negotiations.
He said he is hopeful that diplomacy will prevail, given the history of tensions on the Korean Peninsula since the North Koreans began launching intercontinental-range ballistic missiles that could eventually be nuclear-armed.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s supreme decision-making body lashed out Wednesday at the planned drills and warned that the United States will face a greater threat and harsh suffering if it ignores North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s end-of-year deadline.
In a statement carried by state media, a spokesman for the North’s State Affairs Commission said the drills would violate agreements between Kim and Trump on improving bilateral relations and compel North Korea to raise its war readiness.
Kim is chairman of the commission, which he established in 2016 following years of efforts to consolidate his power and centralize governance.
The statement is North Korea’s latest expression of displeasure over the military drills and slow pace of nuclear negotiations with Washington. The talks have stalled over disagreements on disarmament steps and the removal of sanctions imposed on the North.
North Korea has also ramped up its missile tests in recent months, and experts say it is likely to continue weapons displays to pressure Washington as Kim’s deadline nears for the Trump administration to offer mutually acceptable terms for a deal.
Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s private Sejong Institute, said the North’s decision to release a statement through its highest government institution indicates that it could be preparing more provocative military demonstrations, such as ballistic tests from a new launch-capable submarine it has been developing.
The North Korean spokesman said annual U.S.-South Korea military drills are continuing to cause a “vicious cycle” in relations between the U.S. and North Korea.
The U.S. has about 28,000 troops in South Korea, and Esper said they must be ready to fight the North at a moment’s notice.