The trickle of positive coronavirus cases from USFK personnel arriving in South Korea continues:
Coroanvirus specimen bags are prepared for Patriot Express passengers arriving at Osan Air Base, South Korea, July 14, 2020.
The number of coronavirus cases affiliated with U.S. Forces Korea soared to 111, with 12 more troops and a dependent testing positive after traveling from the United States to South Korea over the past two weeks, the military said Wednesday.
The increase reflected a surge in infections in the United States. USFK has insisted the arrivals pose no risk to local communities because they are tightly controlled with a strict testing and two-week quarantine process.
Ten service members and the dependent who tested positive arrived at Incheon International Airport on commercial flights on July 8, 9 and 19, according to a press release.
The idea of using USFK to respond to global missions has officially returned:
The U.S. push for greater “strategic flexibility” for its forces deployed around the world could increase the chances of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) being mobilized for missions beyond the Korean Peninsula, experts said Wednesday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that he wants to pursue more rotational force deployments into theaters as it give the U.S. “greater strategic flexibility in terms of responding to challenges around the globe.”
The remarks came in response to a recent media report that the Pentagon has offered the White House options to reduce American troop levels in South Korea. Esper, however, said he has not issued an order to withdraw forces from the Korean Peninsula.
What we could see happening is that a future rotational brigade that was originally scheduled to deploy to Korea instead deploys somewhere else. This would allow the U.S. to reduce troops in South Korea in a face saving way.
This shouldn’t be surprising news to anyone following the US-ROK cost sharing negotiations:
This file photo shows U.S. base Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
The Pentagon has offered the White House options to reduce American troop levels in South Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the paper said the options were presented in March following a broader review of options for withdrawing troops from around the world, including in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia.
The White House requested the review last fall, and by December, the Pentagon had come up with broad ideas, it said.
No decision has yet been made to reduce the number of U.S. forces stationed in South Korea from the current 28,500, according to the WSJ.
You can read more at link, but President Trump has already reduced U.S. troop levels in Germany over cost sharing issues and he has been having the same monetary disagreements with South Korea. This report I suspect was leaked to the Wall Street Journal in order to pressure the Korean side that Trump is serious about USFK troop withdrawals.
However, this all may be playing out as Korean President Moon Jae-in wants it to play out. Moon is a very skilled politician that needs to keep the Korean right at bay and public anxiety down. If he openly advocated for a USFK withdrawal, that would give the South Korean right an issue to strongly attack him with and cause much public anxiety after decades of security guarantees provided by US forces.
This is why President Moon has been saying all the right things that USFK should remain, to include claiming Kim Jong-un understands this as well. However, if troop withdrawals do happen he has political cover to not be blamed for it by claiming President Trump’s monetary demands were unreasonable which is a position likely a majority of Koreans believe.
It doesn’t take an expert to know that the cancellation of the US-ROK military exercise will not motivate North Korea to want to discuss denuclearization when they have no intention to denuclearize:
U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Robert Abrams, second from right, inspects an artillery drill at Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in Paju, Gyeonggi Province in this Oct. 23, 2019 photo. / Korea Times file
Amid growing speculation that joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States are likely to be called off in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and appease North Korea, diplomatic experts believe a cancellation as an olive branch to Pyongyang is not a good idea, saying there will be no “reciprocity” from the isolated country.
Currently, the government is in a quandary over whether to cancel the annual drills as the COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of abating. The exercises will bring hundreds of American troops here, raising concerns over possible new infections.
In addition, further deepening Seoul’s calculations is the possibility of military retaliation from the Kim Jong-un regime, as the totalitarian state describes the exercises as hostile action by the U.S. against the North.
The government also wants the exercises to be focused on assessing the Korean military’s relevant capabilities on its way to regaining wartime operational control (OPCON) from the U.S. by 2022. Either a delay or a cancellation of the drills could disrupt the timetable for that.
“If the military exercises are canceled or postponed, it is possible North Korea will relent and agree to an eventual working level meeting, in response to recent U.S.-South Korea requests to resume negotiations. I doubt, however, that the cancellation or postponement of the exercises will motivate the North to resume working-level negotiations, given that it has refused to meet with the U.S. or ROK since late 2019,” Joseph DeTrani, a former U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, told The Korea Times, referring to South Korea by its formal name, the Republic of Korea.
It looks like what was once called UFG will not happen again this year:
South Korea and the United States appear increasingly likely to scale back or even call off a major combined exercise again due to the new coronavirus, after indefinitely postponing their annual springtime drill earlier this year, sources said Saturday.
The repeated skipping of annual exercises, if realized, is feared to affect the joint combat posture between the two countries, as well as South Korea’s planned takeover of the wartime operational control (OPCON) of its forces from the U.S.
“Both sides share the need to stage the summertime exercise as planned, and we’ve continued consultations on the matter. But things are highly flexible due to the COVID-19 situation,” a defense ministry official said.
Seoul and Washington usually carry out major combined exercises twice a year — in around March and August. But they postponed this year’s springtime exercise due to COVID-19, and it has not been held to date, as the health crisis continues.
You can read more at the link, but basically it comes down to not being able to logistically test and quarantine the thousands of servicemembers who would come to Korea for the exercise.
Passengers exit a Patriot Express flight at Osan Air Base, South Korea, June 10, 2020. MATTHEW KEELER/STARS AND STRIPES
Nine people with U.S. Forces Korea tested positive for the coronavirus after traveling to South Korea from the United States, pushing the total number of confirmed cases in isolation to 21, the military said Friday.
Concern about a spillover effect has prompted USFK to follow the South Korean government’s lead in requiring coronavirus tests for all passengers from abroad upon arrival and before they are allowed to exit a mandatory two-week quarantine.
Seven of the service members tested positive after arriving on two separate government-chartered flights known as the Patriot Express, which land at Osan Air Base, USFK said in a statement.
You can read more at the link, the recent positive tests from arriving personnel has pushed the USFK total to 63. However, the last local transmission of the coronavirus occurred all the way back on April 14th.
For readers in the Osan AB area, be on the lookout for this missing airman:
This handout from the U.S. Air Force shows Staff Sgt. Tristin Blake Jarvis, an Osan Air Base airman who has been missing since July 9, 2020.
Search crews fanned out across Osan Air Base to look for a missing U.S. airman on Friday, a day after he was reported absent from his unit, officials said.
Staff Sgt. Tristin Blake Jarvis, 26, of the 51st Force Support Squadron was last seen in the vicinity of the Osan Fitness Center on Wednesday afternoon, according to a press release.
However, security forces searched his room and determined he had been there before changing and leaving, said 1st Lt. Daniel de la Fe, a spokesman for the 51st Fighter Wing.
I wonder if these realty companies will just do a name change and be back in business again:
Camp Humphreys
The U.S. military’s largest base in South Korea has banned business with eight local real estate companies for 10 years over allegations of using fraudulent passes to access the installation.
Camp Humphreys said Wednesday that the businesses were placed off-limits after a review determined they had “conspired to illegally access” the Army garrison “using fraudulently issued base passes.”
“This directly affects the safety and security of the installation,” it added, saying the decision was made after a Feb.13 emergency meeting with the area’s Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board.
“No U.S. personnel are allowed to do new business with these establishments as long as this order is in effect,” it said, stressing the ban was an administrative, not a judicial, action and not subject to appeal. (………)
The announcement, which was posted on Camp Humphreys’ Facebook page, said people who have leases with the affected companies could continue to do business with them for the duration but may not use the companies to renew the leases.
The banned companies were listed as Abba Realty, Christine Realty, JC Realty, GM Realty, Woomi Realty, Uptown Realty, New York Realty, and You & I Realty.
Here is the Stars & Stripes report on the ruckus in Busan caused by U.S. soldiers over the weekend:
About 200 police were dispatched to break up the festivities July 4, 2020, on Haeundae Beach in Busan, South Korea, after receiving more than 70 complaints about fireworks and other unruly behavior by U.S. service members.
The U.S. military expressed regret for “disruptive behavior” Tuesday after American troops allegedly caused a ruckus with a Fourth of July party that included fireworks on a popular beach in the southern city of Busan.
About 200 police were dispatched to break up the festivities Saturday on Haeundae Beach in Busan after receiving more than 70 complaints from local residents.
One soldier was briefly detained and fined for a misdemeanor after throwing a firework in the direction of police, then trying to flee the scene, according to the public affairs office at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency.
Two traffic accidents and a drunken-driving case involving soldiers also were reported in the area on Saturday.
