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March 29, 2024

JCS chief nominee says no plan to scale back Korea-US military drills

PUBLISHED : August 18, 2017 - 17:53

UPDATED : August 18, 2017 - 17:53

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[THE INVESTOR] South Korea has no plans to reduce the scale of an annual joint military exercise with the US or demand the withdrawal of US troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula, the man set to become Seoul’s chief of Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Aug. 18.
 
“We have never considered such measures,” Air Force Gen. Jeong Kyeong-doo said during a parliamentary hearing when asked about whether the military would consider such steps to bring about suspension on North Korea’s nuclear and missile program. 




His remarks came after Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, on Wednesday floated the possibility of a deal between the US and North Korea in which US troops withdraw from South Korea in exchange for a verifiable freeze in the North’s nuclear program. 

Speculation has also emerged that the allies may scale back the scope of the upcoming joint military exercise, a proposal earlier made by South Korean president’s special adviser Moon Chung-in who said South Korea would consult the idea with the US in exchange for suspension of the North’s nuclear activities. 

Though widely dismissed as far-fetched, personal views both in Seoul and Washington, such remarks have alarmed the two countries’ security experts, who suspect that the stationing of 28,000 US troops and its annual drill with the South Korean counterpart have been a successful deterrence against North Korea. 

Earlier in the day, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that upcoming Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise will be played out on a similar scale to that of last year, where 50,000 South Korean and 25,000 US troops participated. The annual drill is slated to begin this week. 

Jeong, who will become the second Air Force officer to take the highest active-duty post if he receives a parliamentary nod, said South Korea will not seek to bring back US tactical nuclear weapons, which Washington withdrew from the Korean Peninsula in 1991.

“I think we should stick to the principle of denuclearization (on the Korean Peninsula),” he said when asked about lawmakers from the main opposition Liberty Party of Korea, who vowed to push for redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons to prevent against the North’s military threat. 

South Korea is banned from developing nukes on its own under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty -- which it signed in 1975. It is also a signatory to several other nonproliferation treaties, including the one that Seoul jointly declared with Pyongyang in 1992.

When asked about how to resolve the North Korean nuclear program, Jeong said he agrees with President Moon’s two-phased approach to resolving the standoff, starting with a freeze on North Korea’s nuclear and missile development followed by complete dismantlement.

”I think it is important for us to use dialogue and pressure the resolve the situation diplomatically. We have to do our best to prevent North Korea from declaring (full nuclear armament),” the Air Force general told the lawmakers. 

By Yeo Jun-suk/The Korea Herald (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)

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