Category: US-ROK Alliance

I hoped nobody is shocked by the news that the U.S. collects intelligence on its allies:

The presidential office said Sunday it will hold necessary discussions with the United States following a U.S. report accusing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of intercepting South Korean government communications regarding aid to Ukraine in war with Russia.

In a report published Saturday in the U.S. (local time), the New York Times said some parts of the CIA documents, posted on a social media chat platform Discord, detailed South Korea’s “internal debates about whether to give the U.S. artillery shells for use in Ukraine, violating Seoul’s policy on providing lethal aid.”

The newspaper noted South Korean officials were concerned that U.S. President Joe Biden would pressure President Yoon Suk Yeol to come through and that the U.S. learned about South Korean deliberations through “a signals intelligence report.” It’s a term used by spy agencies to describe intercepted communications, from phone calls to electronic messages, according to the New York Times.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the TTX last week was a success because they plan to do another one later this year:

Korean Ambassador to U.S. Cho Tae-yong at a press conference held in Washington on Monday. [NEWS1]

Korea’s ambassador to the U.S. said South Korea and the United States are currently working on a joint tabletop exercise (TTX) that goes beyond military maneuvers to embrace diplomacy, information and economics.  
   
The expanded exercise reflects the alliance’s move toward “extended deterrence” against threats from North Korea.  
   
Ambassador Cho Tae-yong told reporters in Washington on Monday that the two countries took part in the U.S. Defense Department’s 8th Deterrence Strategy Committee Table-Top Exercise (DSC TTX) at the Pentagon on Feb. 22.   (…..)

“We plan to pursue a TTX in which several agencies from each country will participate in the near future,” Cho said.    
   
“We have reaffirmed the commitment to extended deterrence that utilizes all defense capacities, including nuclear weapons, as pledged by President Joe Biden during the South Korea-U.S. Summit in May last year.”    
   
He added, “The two sides are closely cooperating to strengthen the alliance’s executing power.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if the Kim regime uses this visit and the joint announcement as a reason to launch an ICBM in the coming days:

The defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States have agreed to further expand the countries’ joint military exercises amid intensifying North Korean provocations, they said in a joint statement released Tuesday.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also agreed to continue taking strong steps against North Korean provocations.

“The two leaders also pledged to further expand and bolster the level and scale of this year’s combined exercises and training,” said the joint statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Considering the nuclear threats the Kim regime has continued to make against South Korea it makes sense to plan for how to respond to their use:

 South Korea and the United States plan to stage a combined military exercise next month under the scenario of use of a nuclear weapon by North Korea, Seoul’s defense ministry said Wednesday in its report to President Yoon Suk Yeol on major policy tasks this year.

Among other plans are holding a 11-day springtime South Korea-U.S. exercise without a break, conducting a final test of a homegrown solid-propellant space rocket and launching the country’s first military surveillance satellite.

Led by the allies’ Deterrence Strategy Committee (DSC), the discussion-based Table-Top Exercise (TTX) is set to take place in the U.S. in the latter half of February, as the two sides agreed to hold it annually at a bilateral defense ministerial meeting in November last year, according to the ministry.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Not a good look for President Yoon that he is getting out in front of the U.S. on the discussion of conducting Joint nuclear exercises:

The White House statement came hours after Biden, responding to a reporter’s question as he exited Marine One, said he was not discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea.

The president’s short denial at the White House follows Yoon’s interview with the Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Sunday, in which Yoon said South Korea was holding “considerably positive” discussions with the U.S. about “joint exercise concepts” related to nuclear weapons.

“Nuclear weapons are the U.S.’s, but South Korea and the U.S. should work together in planning, information sharing, exercises and training,” Yoon said.

Biden’s response prompted a spokeswoman for Yoon, Kim Eun Hye, to clarify Tuesday that the U.S. and South Korea are discussing ways to deter North Korea from using nuclear weapons, including sharing information and joint planning with concern to U.S. nuclear assets, according to a statement from the South Korean presidential office.

The reporter’s question to Biden about talks on a joint nuclear exercise lacked important context, which led the U.S. president to respond with “no,” according to Kim’s statement.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is a standard playbook response to North Korean missile launches from the U.S. and the ROK that has training value, but has done nothing to deter the Kim regime’s nuclear and missile programs:

South Korea and the United States conducted combined air drills, involving U.S. B-52 strategic bombers and F-22 stealth fighters, on Tuesday, in an effort to strengthen the credibility of America’s “extended deterrence,” Seoul’s defense ministry said.

The drills took place in the South’s air defense identification zone southwest of its southern island of Jeju amid tensions caused by the North’s launch of two medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM) on Sunday.

The South’s F-35A stealth jets and F-15K fighters also joined the drills.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

These electromagnetic wave detectors are not going to detect anything because the THAAD radar looks up towards the sky into space where a ballistic missile comes from. Pointing the THAAD radar at the ground towards a farm will not allow it to detect ballistic missiles. The claim made by activists has already been disproven with tests taken before, but the government is going to go ahead and continue to play this game for activists that will never be happy until the radar is removed:

 South Korea’s defense ministry has selected a successful bidder in its project to acquire and install electromagnetic wave detectors around the THAAD missile defense base in a southeastern county, officials said Sunday.

The ministry is to receive the delivery of eight electromagnetic wave detectors by April 28, 2023, under a promise made to residents in Seongju, 217 kilometers southeast of Seoul, home to an advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Five of those will be installed near the base to monitor the potentially hazardous electromagnetic waves of THAAD’s X-band radar around the clock, with the remainder to be set aside as spares.

The equipment is expected to be installed in the second quarter of next year, according to an official, who added that the ministry is in talks with local organizations on the exact locations.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but does the government provide electromagnetic wave tests for all the Korean Green Pine and Patriot radars spread out around the country?

The political opposition in South Korea is demanding that the ruling government stop combined exercises with USFK:

Military exercises involving U.S. and South Korean forces are a necessary consequence of the constant security threat from North Korea, the South’s national defense minister told lawmakers Monday.

Suspending exercises with the U.S. military “is impossible” in light of threats from North Korea, Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup told lawmakers at a parliamentary hearing Monday. 

Rep. Cho Sujin,a conservative lawmaker and member of the ruling People Power Party, during the hearing described relations with North Korea as a “fraught situation” that requires people to be “highly attentive.” 

Cho called on Lee to answer opposition critics who question whether the increased tempo of exercises is the correct response to North Korea’s record-breaking spate of ballistic missile tests this year. Several progressive South Korean non-governmental organizations and independent party lawmakers have been critical of the joint exercises and allege they fuel the division between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the political opposition is playing right into the hands of the Kim regime of sowing division in South Korea while they quickly advance their missile and nuclear programs.

The New York Times recently published an article on the THAAD protests in Seongju. Despite a long article it shares nothing new and really doesn’t provide deep insight into what is actually happening with this issue:

“Now, if there is war, our village will become the first target because of that machine up there,” she said impatiently.

The “machine” Ms. Do was referring to is the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, a powerful radar and missile-interceptor battery also known as Thaad. Five years ago, it was brought to this hamlet about 135 miles southeast of Seoul by the United States, infuriating China and prompting it to unleash economic retaliation. ​

Washington and Seoul said the weapons system was crucial in their defense against North Korean aggression. China argued that the United States was using North Korea as an excuse to expand its military presence in the region and make implicit threats toward its most formidable competitor. Villagers like Ms. Do and their supporters, including labor activists, have tended to agree.

Now, the Thaad system, located in an area once known for its melon patches, has become a symbol of the broader challenges facing South Korea as it ​tries to strike a balance between China, the country’s largest trading partner, and the United States, its main security ally.

New York Times

You can read more at the link, but what the article misses is that the THAAD was rapidly deployed into South Korea during the Park Guen-hye administration. The Korean left opposed THAAD simply because it was Park administration initiative. If the THAAD battery was deployed by a President on the Korean left, these protests would not have grown to what they have become. Of course much of the protests were fed by claims the radar would poison crops and give people cancer which all proved untrue. The claims are further ridiculous when one considers that Patriot and Green Pine batteries used for missile defense are deployed all around Korea and there are no protests about them.

Since this was an initiative of President Park the usual suspects in the Korean left came out and protested it. When President Moon took power he took a middle ground of allowing the THAAD to remain where it was because he knew it was providing a needed missile defense capability to the country and did not want to harm the U.S.-ROK alliance by trying to remove it. However, to appease his left wing base he allowed the protesters to continue to block the road forcing the U.S. and ROK military personnel to use helicopters to access the base.

Seeing how THAAD was a wedge issue between the Korean right and left, the Chinese decided to jump in and further inflame this issue by claiming the THAAD was harmful to their national security. They used the false claims the radar was intended to spy on them even though it is pointed towards North Korea, not China. Additionally the U.S. has other radars and assets in the area to monitor China which they say nothing about. The Chinese hoped to pressure Moon to remove THAAD in order to harm the U.S.-ROK alliance. To President Moon’s credit he did not take the bait from the Chinese and allowed the THAAD battery to remain. To appease the Chinese he made the “Three No’s” promise. Despite the promise the Chinese government continued to take economic retaliatory measures against South Korea which continues to this day.

Now with a President from the Korean right in power he has changed policy and has been removing the protesters to allow U.S. and ROK military personnel access to the base by road. This road access will allow much needed facility improvements to enhance the quality of life for U.S. and ROK troops stationed at the base. The few protesters that remain now are simply there for NIMBY reasons and the usual protesters from the Korean left have largely abandoned them as they search for another wedge issue to attack the Korean right with.

It will be interesting to see what increasing military cooperation with Japan will do for President Yoon’s extremely low polling numbers:

South Korea said its military will strengthen security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan, including the deployment of “U.S. strategic assets,” after Kim Jong Un’s North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles Sunday.

The provocations, in violation of United Nations Security Council’s resolutions, will strengthen sanctions against North Korea, worsen public welfare and make the regime “very unstable,” South Korea’s National Security Council said in a statement after an urgent meeting to brief President Yoon Suk Yeol. The missiles were launched from the Munchon area in Kangwon province between 1:48 a.m. and 1:58 a.m., the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an email.

The missile tests add to 10 launched by North Korea over the past two weeks. The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group made a U-turn after one of those missiles flew over Japan. The group returned to waters off the Korean Peninsula and held missile defense exercises with naval forces from Japan and South Korea on Thursday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but it appears the ROK is overselling sanctions making the regime “very unstable”. The Kim regime has shown it knows how to whether sanctions with help from China and Russia plus their criminal activities.