If North Korea is going to start a provocation cycle after the New Year as the Kim regime has vaguely indicated, it appears that the Trump administration is not going to give them an easy excuse to point at for the provocation:
U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announces the allies’ decision to postpone this year’s wintertime combined air exercises during a press briefing with South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo in Bangkok on Nov. 17, 2019. (Yonhap)
South Korea and the United States decided to put off their wintertime combined air exercises to support diplomacy with North Korea, the two sides said Sunday, with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper urging Pyongyang to reciprocate the goodwill by returning to nuclear talks.
Esper and South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo announced the surprise decision during an impromptu joint press conference in Bangkok on the sidelines of a regional defense ministers’ meeting led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“We have made this decision as an act of goodwill to contribute to an environment conducive to diplomacy and the advancement of peace,” Esper said after announcing that the allies decided to postpone the Combined Flying Training Event set for later this month.
The big test is going to be if the Key Resolve exercise that happens every March is cancelled. I would think by then we would have a good idea of which way the whole denuclearization negotiations is going to go:
F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft take part in Exercise VIGILANT ACE 18 at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, on Dec. 3, 2017. U.S. and South Korean officials announced on Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, that the annual exercise has been canceled for 2018.
The United States and South Korea have canceled an annual air exercise scheduled for December, the Pentagon announced Friday, emphasizing ongoing diplomatic discussions with North Korea.
The Pentagon and South Korea’s military will not conduct Exercise Vigilant Ace as the two nations negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear program, said Dana White, a Pentagon spokeswoman. It’s at least the fourth military exercise that the nations have canceled since President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced he was suspending military “war games” on the peninsula after his June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. [Stars & Stripes]
A B-1B Lancer strategic bomber, two F-35A and two F-35B stealth jets of the U.S., and two F-16K and two F-15K fighters of South Korea fly in formation over the Korean Peninsula in this year’s annual joint Korea-U.S. air force drill, Vigilant Ace, on Dec. 6, 2017, in this photo provided by the air force. The exercise against North Korean provocations is the biggest in its history. (Yonhap)
