Author: GIKorea

This seems to be a trial balloon to judge reaction to possible future plans to be able to use U.S. forces in South Korea for rotational deployments in the great Indo-Pacific theater:

U.S. troops are concentrated in Northeast Asia and should be distributed to better respond to evolving security challenges, including China, a senior Pentagon official has said.

“We are heavily concentrated in Northeast Asia,” David Helvey, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs, said, according to a news report by the U.S. Department of Defense news on Monday.

“We’d like to be able to make our presence more geographically distributed, more operationally resilient,” Helvey said. “Maybe, the future is going to be less about bases and more about places — being able to operate across a multiplicity of locations, which give us the flexibility and the agility to respond to a variety of different threats and challenges.”

His comments came when the U.S. has been pushing for greater “strategic flexibility” for its forces deployed around the world amid speculation that it could consider pulling some troops out of South Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but maybe this could be a compromise in regards to the ongoing cost sharing issue. The U.S. could say that since South Korea does not want to increase funding to support USFK, the Pentagon will deploy U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to support larger regional security objectives. I guess we will see what happens in the coming years.

This rollover accident happened last year during the 1st Cavalry Division’s deployment to South Korea:

The 1st Cavalry Division has moved to oust three junior leaders and ordered reforms to its driver’s training program after a 20-year-old infantryman was killed last year in a rollover accident involving a Bradley Fighting Vehicle at Camp Humphreys, the soldier’s mother said Saturday.

The Fort Hood, Texas-based Army division acted after finding that Spc. Nicholas Panipinto had no license or classroom instruction and had received only six hours of hands-on training when he died during a Nov. 6 road test of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Two other soldiers were injured.

However, the changes are not enough for Panipinto’s mother, Kimberly Weaver, who said her son’s death had been preventable, and she believes the soldiers being punished are being used as scapegoats.

“This whole thing has just so many problems on so many different levels,” she told Stars and Stripes on Saturday in a phone interview.

“Why are these three lower-level unit soldiers being thrown under the bus while the higher-ups are not being accountable when all these failures happened under their watch,” she added.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Company Commander, Platoon Leader, and Vehicle Commander have all been reprimanded and being processed for discharge from the Army. I can understand that the mother is upset, but, this is pretty significant punishment for what happened. The accident according to the article was caused by the track coming off, but the article does not specify if something the driver did caused this or was it a mechanical issue.

When these accidents do happen the investigation always looks back at the Driver’s Training program and it was discovered that SPC Panipinto was driving the bradley without completing all the requirements. This is company commander level business to ensure everyone is properly licensed before conducting an operation.

However, what I find most troubling is how it took two hours to get a medical evacuation helicopter to the site of the accident. I really hope that whatever caused that gets fixed.

Seoul is not the only Northeast Asia capitol dealing with coronavirus cluster infections, Tokyo is as well:

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Sunday confirmed 148 additional cases of the novel coronavirus, the second lowest daily figure recorded in the capital this month.

The single-day figure brought Tokyo’s cumulative total to over 20,700 cases. The capital hit a record 472 on Aug. 1 and has seen daily cases in triple digits for every day in August bar last Monday, when it recorded 95 new infections, its lowest figure in over a month.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but Tokyo has decreasing case numbers and have done it without a lockdown which is what Seoul has implemented.

This is a horrible accident and condolences to all the family members and friends impacted by this:

A crash involving a U.S. military vehicle killed four South Koreans, prompting U.S. Forces Korea to temporarily suspend training in the area, which is near the border with North Korea, officials said Monday.

An SUV carrying the four civilians rear-ended the armored personnel carrier – a tracked vehicle – at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday on a road near the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in the city of Pocheon, local police and fire officials said.

The four civilians were pronounced dead at the scene, a fire official said. The two soldiers in the military vehicle were not seriously injured. One was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation but was cleared and released back to his unit, according to the 2nd Infantry Division.

USFK expressed “its deepest condolences” to the families and loved ones of the deceased and said the military was fully cooperating with the South Korean police investigation into the crash.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I don’t think the Korean anti-U.S. leftists will be able to politicize this accident like they did with the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident. The fact the armored vehicle was rear ended makes it harder to blame the soldiers for the accident. However, USFK will fully investigate what happened with this accident and if there was any negligence I am confident people will be held accountable.

It will be interesting to see the effect this has on case numbers:

The city of Seoul on Sunday designated this week as a “week of standstill” for nearly 10 million citizens in its latest measure to fight the spread of the new coronavirus in the capital area.

During the “10 Million Citizen Standstill Week,” which runs from Sunday to next Sunday, citizens are advised to remain at home and stay away from social gatherings as much as possible, Seo Jeong-hyup, the city’s acting mayor, said in an online press briefing. 

“This is a time of burden sharing. … Over the next week starting today, I ask you to thoroughly abide by quarantine requirements with a resolution to almost sacrifice your everyday routines,” the acting mayor said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like President Moon is cycling the Defense Minister position among all the military services:

President Moon Jae-in has nominated Army Chief of Staff Gen. Suh Wook as new defense minister, Cheong Wa Dae announced Friday.

If appointed after a National Assembly confirmation hearing, Suh would replace Jeong Kyeong-doo. If so, he would become the first defense chief with an Army background under the Moon administration.

Moon’s first defense minister was a retired Navy admiral, Song Young-moo, and Jeong is a former fighter pilot who served as Air Force chief.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.