Tag: USFK

Condolences to all this Soldier’s friends and family:

A military vehicle crash in the southeastern city of Daegu has left one South Korean soldier assigned to US Forces Korea dead and three others injured, including two US service members, police said.

The accident occurred at around 5:07 a.m. on Monday when the military SUV carrying the four soldiers struck a highway median barrier and overturned onto its right side in Daegu, some 240 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the accident happened at around five in the morning after they completed their duties. It makes me wonder if being up all night caused someone to fall asleep while driving?

What a stupid issue for the Korean left to fighting over:

Fallout from a lawmaker’s response to remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea appears likely to spill over into the security and diplomatic arena.

On Sunday, the conservative main opposition People Power Party accused the Lee Jae Myung administration of “degrading” and “picking a fight” with the US, claiming that the administration was creating another “diplomatic farce.”

“The idea of ‘jurisdiction by a foreign power’ is raised over a single remark by the USFK commander,” People Power Party spokesperson Cho Yong-sool said in a statement on Sunday, saying that any diplomatic concerns with an ally should be addressed through diplomatic consultations and expressions of regret.

Korea Herald

Here is what General Brunson said:

Kim demanded a public apology from Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of USFK and the United Nations Command, in response to remarks the general made at a forum in Washington on Wednesday. At the forum, Brunson said that, from the UNC’s point of view, South Korea started at the southern fence of the Demilitarized Zone, as the UNC managed the DMZ to maintain the armistice.

The DMZ separates the two Koreas in a 4-kilometer-wide strip, 2 kilometers on either side of the Military Demarcation Line.

Kim argued that the 1953 Armistice Agreement gives the UNC authority over access to and administration of the DMZ, but does not give it the power to determine South Korea’s territorial sovereignty.

“These remarks crossed the line by infringing upon South Korea’s territorial sovereignty,” Kim said, calling on Brunson to retract them and apologize to the South Korean public.

You can read more at the link, but all this politician had to do was ask USFK to have General Bruson clarify his remarks which he did in response to this political grandstanding. General Brunson said he was referring to the administrative and military responsibilities assigned to the UNC for the DMZ, not the sovereignty of South Korea.

If the Lee administration has its way, they will take over OPCON whether they are ready or not because the issue is not about enhancing national defense, but instead politics and nationalism:

On the envisioned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington to Seoul, Brunson reiterated his support for a conditions-based transition, stressing the importance of meeting agreed military requirements before proceeding with the handover.

“I am in full support of OPCON transfer that is conditions based, full stop,” he said. 

“At the end of the day, if my president, if my secretary of war tell me, ‘Execute right now,’ I go, ‘Yes, but here are the risks inherent in doing this without having fully met the conditions, securing the critical capabilities that are necessary.'”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if General Brunson can pull this off. There is so much inertia to do things the way they have always been done in Korea to overcome:

The general suggested that the allies consider conducting exercises across a much broader geographical area rather than in fixed locations.

“What would it look like if we train from Jeju all the way up to Gyeonggi Province in the north?” he said. “So just imagine if we trained across the entirety of the peninsula.”

Brunson said the allies should take into consideration lessons from the war in Ukraine, where the widespread use of drones and other modern battlefield technologies has left forces operating from fixed positions vulnerable.

He stressed the importance of distributing forces across different locations to reduce their vulnerability to potential attacks. “We won’t be moored in place.”

Brunson also raised the possibility of conducting more training between the two major annual exercises, rather than focusing preparations primarily on those events.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It doesn’t appear to be anything nefarious going on with the North Korean border incursions, but the US and ROK senior leaders decided to check it out for themselves anyway:

Top U.S. and South Korean commanders inspected frontline positions within the Demilitarized Zone this week amid increased North Korean construction and repeated crossings of the heavily fortified border. Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and Gen. Jin Yong-sung, chairman of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the eastern border Wednesday and examined North Korean construction near the Military Demarcation Line, according to a Joint Staff press release. The line divides the two Koreas within the DMZ, a buffer zone established after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.

The agreement has maintained stability on the Korean Peninsula for the past 70 years, but firm readiness is necessary to preserve it, Brunson said in the release. The visit follows several recent demarcation-line crossings by North Korean troops. South Korean forces fired warning shots last month after North Korean soldiers crossed the border in the DMZ’s eastern sector, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense. The incident marked the first warning shots fired in response to a crossing since an incursion last year, the Yonhap News Agency reported Aug. 16. North Korean troops crossed the line 17 times last year, the report said.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like USFK may soon get some serious additional combat capabilities:

U.S. Army Spc. Delilah Crenshaw of the 2nd Multi-Domain Effects Battalion ensures cables are securely connected to a GATR inflatable satellite antenna at a training site in northwest Poland, Aug. 30, 2023. (Ashley Morris/U.S. Army)

The U.S. Army reportedly plans to move hundreds of multidomain troops from Germany to South Korea within the year, although the Pentagon said Wednesday it had nothing to announce about the potential deployment. The 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force’s Multi-Domain Effects Battalion would join U.S. Forces Korea to strengthen capabilities against North Korea while bolstering deterrence against China, the Chosun Daily reported Wednesday. The newspaper did not identify the source of its information.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.

For those about to exit service and have served in Korea, this may be an opportunity worth checking out:

“In recent years, the number of Korean companies expanding into the U.S. has increased significantly and demand for local workers has risen rapidly, particularly in advanced industries such as semiconductors and batteries,” Lee told The Korea Times. “But one of the biggest difficulties these companies face is securing local workers.”

That prompted KCCI to look toward U.S. service members who had served in Korea — a group that could offer Korean employers both professional skills and firsthand familiarity with Korean culture and workplace practices.

“They understand Korean culture and the business environment through their time serving in Korea, and their military careers have equipped them with responsibility, leadership and teamwork,” said Lee, who is also a vice chairman of SK Group.

“We saw a clear potential to connect the workforce needs of Korean companies in the U.S. with new career opportunities for service members leaving the military.”

KCCI signed an agreement with the foundation in September last year to support USFK personnel transitioning to civilian careers. The online platform was completed in November and officially launched in March.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This makes me wonder if Trump is trying to get a deal with Kim Jong-un this year in order to get a foreign policy victory before the November mid-term elections?:

South Korea and the United States have agreed to halve the duration of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise at Washington’s request, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Wednesday.

The allies decided to end this year’s UFS exercise on Friday, shortening the drill to Aug. 17-21 from the originally planned Aug. 17-27 schedule, according to the JCS.

The exercise kicked off Monday as initially planned.

This is the first time a major combined exercise has been abruptly adjusted after getting underway. (…..)

UFS is typically conducted in two phases, with the first focused on defending South Korea against a simulated attack and the second on counteroffensive operations.

“The second phase, which focuses on counteroffensive operations, will not be conducted under the shortened schedule,” a military official in Seoul said. (……)

The reduction comes as Trump seeks to revive diplomacy with Pyongyang. Trump has suggested that Kim has responded to his overtures, although he has not disclosed details of any exchanges.

Trump is also seeking a face-to-face meeting with Kim this year, according to reports, with a possible encounter around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Too many people think missile defense is a magic force field when the fact is that it buys commanders time to disperse assets and go on the offense. Just the disparity in the number of interceptors compared to enemy missiles is evidence enough of this fact:

Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), made the remarks in an op-ed released by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, following reports that the United States is running low on key missile defense interceptors amid the Middle East war.

Noting that advancements in drone and missile warfare have pushed Ukraine and Russia to take extensive steps to protect their bases since their full-scale war began in 2022, Jones argued that the U.S. has been “too slow” to learn from the war and protect its bases and other infrastructure in the Middle East.

“The challenge in the Pacific is much greater. China presents a more serious threat than Iran with a larger and more capable stockpile of drones and cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles,” he said.

“U.S. military bases and other infrastructure across the Pacific — from Japan and the Philippines to Guam and South Korea — are highly vulnerable to Chinese and North Korean missiles and drones,” he added.

The expert called on the U.S. to get serious about protecting its critical infrastructure, stressing the need to take an array of steps, including increasing “active defenses,” such as air defense systems that can identify, shoot down or otherwise disrupt incoming missiles and drones.

He also called for the U.S. to ramp up “passive defenses,” such as digging underground facilities for vital infrastructure; increase its use of camouflage, concealment and deception; and disperse its military facilities to make it more difficult for potential adversaries to attack.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but hardening buildings and digging underground facilities is very expensive and Congressmen and Generals would rather buy shiny new F-35s and naval destroyers.

The reason the land hasn’t been handed over is equally the fault of the Korean government. Negotiations on where to put the Combined Forces Command Headquarters and the U.S. embassy housing are still ongoing. Additionally, all the complaining from the environmental groups still has portions of the projected parkland going through environmental mitigation before being turned into a park:

During the briefing session, Lee also zeroed in on delays in reclaiming land that previously housed United States Forces Korea (USFK) facilities, even after U.S. troops relocated to Pyeongtaek, some 60 kilometers south of Seoul.

“We spent more than 10 trillion won (US$7 billion) to build the Pyeongtaek base,” the president said.

“It is a real problem that (land used for former U.S. military bases) is not being returned for one reason or another, and that even after it is returned, it is effectively unusable because of various restrictions,” he said. 

Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said the USFK has been passive on the issue and that Seoul is urging it to make progress.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.