Category: US-ROK Alliance

It looks like the UFG exercise this year will be very low key if the Kim regime continues to behave:

South Korea will conduct annual war games with the United States as planned but will avoid publicizing them to facilitate diplomatic efforts over the North’s nuclear weapons program, the defense ministry said Monday.

North Korea has sharply denounced joint military exercises, which it considers rehearsals for an invasion, ahead of an unprecedented summit planned between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump on June 12 in Singapore.

“We will be conducting the U.S.-[South Korean] joint military exercises normally in line with annual plans,” ministry spokesman Lee Jin-woo said during a press briefing. “But we’ll refrain from promoting the contents of the joint drills or opening them to the public as best we can.”

The comments came a day after North Korea criticized the South for planning to join upcoming international maritime drills in Hawaii known as Rim of the Pacific and a major joint exercise with the U.S. called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which begins in August.  [Stars & Stripes]

Complaining about the RIMPAC exercise is pretty stupid considering it is held in Hawaii and involves many more countries than just the US and South Korea.

The way I look at it, as long as the ROK government continues to allow the protesters to block the road and artificially make sustainment costs for THAAD more expensive they should pay for it:

South Korea’s defense ministry said Friday that the cost of operating a U.S. missile defense system installed in the South may be covered using part of Seoul’s new share of upkeep costs for U.S. forces stationed here.

The U.S. could demand South Korea shoulder some costs needed to run and keep the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system as the allies are in discussion to renew their five-year deal on defense cost-sharing.

“If the U.S. side hopes to use Seoul’s share of the U.S. forces upkeep costs to cover THAAD’s operation, it may be possible to use it within the total amount of the South’s share in accordance with sectoral needs and regulations,” the ministry said in a statement.

It could potentially spark a row as it marks a sharp difference from the government’s stance that South Korea will not bear any of the costs associated with THAAD.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the US-ROK cost sharing talks:

The United States has demanded South Korea share the cost of deploying U.S. strategic assets around the Korean Peninsula during recent talks to renew their cost-sharing agreement for American troops stationed here, a foreign ministry official said Friday.

Seoul rejected the request saying the issue should not be part of the negotiation.

“Our basic stance on this matter is that the agreement deals with how to share the upkeep cost of stationing the U.S. troops,” the official told a group of reporters on condition of anonymity.

The two sides held their second round of the talks on the southern island of Jeju earlier this week. The first round was held in Hawaii last month.

The official said that there are “big differences” to be ironed out in the amount of money proposed by each side, which he said requires more discussion going forward. He didn’t provide specific numbers.

With regard to another potential issue of how to share the cost of operating the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system that was installed here last year, he said it was not mentioned in the meeting.

He noted, however, that the matter could be discussed as the cost of the THAAD operation could be dealt with in line with the “logistical support” part stipulated in the agreement.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here is an update from the frontlines of the THAAD protest site:

-South Korea’s defense authorities decided Thursday to wait until this weekend to bring construction materials and equipment into the U.S. missile defense base in the face of local residents’ protest.

The military had planned to transport them to the THAAD site, located in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, within the day.

Police clashed with hundreds of activists and residents, trying to clear the way for the trucks. Some protesters were hurt.

But the Ministry of National Defense reached a deal with them to continue talks through the weekend. The government pulled the police out of the area.

Only a dozen trailers will enter the base to take such heavy equipment as forklifts and bulldozers out of it. Those were used for early-stage construction work a few months ago.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the protesters want to be able to go on the site and monitor all the construction work which is intended to improve soldier facilities on the site.  If a random civilian is allowed on the site maybe Kim Jong-un should demand that he should be allowed to have a representative on the site as well.

Could this be the beginning of the end of the Dragon Hill Lodge?  I hope not:

The Ministry of National Defense plans to discuss demolishing the Dragon Hill Hotel, a lodging facility for U.S. soldiers inside the Yongsan garrison with the United States Forces Korea (USFK).

This is in line with the relocation of USFK headquarters from Yongsan to Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province by the end of this year. The USFK initially planned to keep the hotel in Yongsan.

However, there have been complaints from locals that the existence of the hotel is not helpful for a plan to redevelop the Yongsan base.

“We will take enough time with the USFK to discuss the details for the demolition of the facility,” defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said in a media briefing, Tuesday.  [Korea Times via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but the Dragon Hill Lodge is a great facility and it seems like a waste to destroy it.  Plus there is a huge number of Korean national that are employed there that would lose their jobs.  Hopefully something can be worked out.

The long awaited joint military exercise has finally begun:

A combined field training of South Korean and U.S. troops got under way Sunday as scheduled, defense officials said amid a nascent peace mood on the divided peninsula.

More than 11,500 service members, including thousands based outside of Korea, plan to participate in the four-week Foal Eagle training, along with around 300,000 South Korean soldiers.

The allies often kick off their largest annual military exercise in late February or early March for a two-month run. This year, however, they waited until the end of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games here.

The duration of Foal Eagle has been shortened to a month, with no major U.S. strategic assets such as supercarriers and nuclear subs expected to show up.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This argument would be just as (if not more) valid if it advised POTUS to confront Im Jong-seok's history of pro-Pyongyang extremism & ask what choosing him says about Moon Jae-in. Of course, Bolton is a media bête noire; Moon is a media darling.https://t.co/POffMdQidz

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) March 26, 2018

It looks like the upcoming Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises will be the most low key ones conducted in quite some time:

The upcoming joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea will minimize the deployment of U.S. strategic assets such as nuclear subs and strategic bombers.

In a brief statement, the defense ministry said on Tuesday the drills, which had been delayed until after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, will begin on April 1, on “a scale similar to previous years.”

It did not provide details on what assets will be deployed or state how long the drills will last in comparison to previous years.

The United Nations Command notified the North Korean military of the plan the same day, and that the drills would be held as a regular exercise for defense purposes, the ministry said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

I would not put too much stock in this statement which I think could be interpreted as rhetoric for the friendly audience and part of a negotiating strategy for US-ROK cost sharing and trade talks.  With that said the ROK would probably be wise to not totally dismiss his comments:

President Donald Trump hinted he may withdraw American troops from South Korea if the U.S. ally doesn’t concede more in trade negotiations, a newspaper reported.

The Washington Post quoted Trump as saying Wednesday in a fundraising speech that the United States was losing money on trade with South Korea as well as the military presence that is meant as protection against aggression from the North.

“We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them,” Trump said Wednesday in audio obtained by the Post. “We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let’s see what happens.”

“Our allies care about themselves,” he said in the 30-minute speech to donors in Missouri. “They don’t care about us.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Trump administration is remaining committed to keeping their promise of making the ROK government pay more for the upkeep of USFK:

The negotiations to renew South Korea and the United States’ deal on defense cost sharing are likely to be a “difficult” path, the top South Korean negotiator said Monday following the inaugural round of talks last week.

The allies kicked off the first round of the talks in Honolulu, Hawaii, last Wednesday to renew their five-year Special Measures Agreement governing Seoul’s share of the upkeep of the 28,500 American forces stationed in South Korea for defense against the North.

In the three-day “exploratory” talks last week, the two sides discussed at the “rudimentary level” the contributions each has made to the development of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and the positions they have over the next defense cost sharing deal, a senior government official said in a background briefing.

“Both sides shared the understanding that the current negotiations should be led in a way that intensifies the combined defense posture and further develops the South Korea-U.S. alliance,” the official said.

He noted they are likely to be “difficult negotiations,” adding that the allies may take several rounds of talks to reach a new agreement. His comments hint that the allies had wide differences as they entered into the negotiations, especially after President Donald Trump’s repeated call to raise South Korea’s share of the defense financing.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.