SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea and the US will no longer stage large-scale military exercises involving American strategic weapons including aircraft carriers, bombers and stealth fighter jets, the military authorities of both countries confirmed on Saturday.
The two countries will, in future, hold only small-scale drills in order to avoid tensions with North Korea, which has called the large-scale drills “war rehearsals.”
The decision followed the latest talks between the US and North Korea over the latter’s denuclearization, which were widely seen as a failure when the two sides failed to reach an agreement over sanctions at their second summit in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital.
In a telephone conversation on Saturday, South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo and acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan made the decision to end their annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises in order to decrease the likelihood of aggressive moves from nuclear-armed North Korea.
“Following close coordination, both sides decided to conclude the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle series of exercises,” a joint press statement issued by Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense and the Pentagon stated. “The Minister and Secretary reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring the continued combined defense of US-ROK (Republic of Korea) combined forces to meet any security challenge.”
In a phone interview with Arab News, Choi Hyun-soo, spokesperson for Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense, stressed the decision was made in order to help expedite North Korea’s move toward nuclear disarmament.
“The main goal (of ending large-scale exercises) is to support diplomatic efforts to help the North achieve complete denuclearization,” she said. “We are not ending joint drills between South Korea and the United States. I can say we’re modifying our exercises.”
Augmentation forces
About 28,500 US soldiers are stationed across South Korea as a deterrent force against North Korea. Currently, US forces conduct joint drills with South Korean forces every spring and autumn.
The two-week computer simulation exercise Key Resolve was carried out under a South Korea-US operational scenario that allowed for up to 690,000 American augmentation forces to be deployed from outside the Korean Peninsula during wartime.
Foal Eagle was a combined field training exercise related to special operations, amphibious maneuvers, and joint operations at sea and in the air.
In place of Key Resolve, the allied forces announced they will launch a new week-long command-post exercise named Dong Maeng (Alliance). Foal Eagle will be replaced by smaller drills.
“Exercise Dong Maeng provides us the opportunity to train and rehearse with our Republic of Korea, United States, and United Nations Sending State partners,” said a joint statement co-issued by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff and US Forces Korea.
Military experts in South Korea believe the downscaling of joint drills will weaken defenses against possible aggression from North Korea, which they say does not appear committed to complete cessation of its nuclear programs.
“The new exercises cannot, and never will be, the same as the previous ones in terms of the level and quality of training,” Shin Won-shik, a former deputy chief of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Arab News. “The previous exercises were conducted based on different scenarios of defensive, counter-attack and offensive options. Halving the period of the command-post exercise, for example, means they want to train only for defense.”
The retired three-star general was also concerned that scaling back the exercises will eventually remove the justification for US troops being present in South Korea, leading, at some point, to their withdrawal.
US President Donald Trump has frequently complained that Seoul does not contribute enough money to support the joint drills.
“We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on those exercise, and I hated to see it,” the US commander-in-chief said during a press conference following the collapse of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Feb. 28.
“And frankly, I was sort of the opinion that South Korea should help us with that,” he continued. “You know, we’re protecting South Korea.”
