U.S., South Korea suspend joint military exercise because of North Korea nuclear talks

The Washington Post

The United States and South Korea suspended a high-profile air-power exercise scheduled for December, the fourth such military training operation the two allies have canceled as a result of nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his South Korean counterpart decided to cancel the joint military exercise, known as Vigilant Ace, “to give the diplomatic process every opportunity to continue,” the Pentagon’s chief spokeswoman, Dana W. White, said Friday in a statement.

“Both ministers are committed to modifying training exercises to ensure the readiness of our forces,” Ms. White added. “They pledged to maintain close coordination and evaluate future exercises.”

U.S. military exercises with South Korea, which improve capacity and prepare the two allies to work together in the event of a conflict, have long irritated North Korea, which describes them as “war games” and often mounts a negative reaction when they take place.

In June, President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore and agreed to suspend some of the exercises as a concession to Pyongyang during the disarmament talks. North Korea hasn’t conducted any intercontinental ballistic missile or nuclear warhead tests since then.

Mr. Trump has made statements in recent weeks suggesting all U.S. military exercises with South Korea had been suspended. But lower-level training operations between the two allies have continued apace.

Only three high-profile exercises had been suspended as a result of the Singapore summit: Ulchi Freedom Guardian and two Korean Marine Exchange Program training operations. Friday’s decision to suspend Vigilant Ace marked the fourth canceled exercise.

Vigilant Ace is primarily an air-combat exercise in which fighter jets from both countries come together and fly in various scenarios.

Mr. Mattis hasn’t been a fan of the decision to suspend the military exercises, according to former U.S. officials, who said that he had urged against putting them on the table during negotiations. Mr. Trump, however, has long been a skeptic of military exercises and has suggested that the joint training operations the United States carries out with South Korea are a waste of money.