U.S. military says no plans to suspend more major exercises on Korean peninsula

[webfact]

U.S. military says no plans to suspend more major exercises on Korean peninsula

By Phil Stewart and Arshad Mohammed

 

A man walks past a TV broadcasting a news report on the dismantling of the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site, in Seoul, South Korea, May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Files

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has no plans yet to suspend any more major military exercises with South Korea, the defence secretary said on Tuesday, in the middle of a breakdown in diplomacy with North Korea over its nuclear weapons.

 

Defence Secretary James Mattis told a Pentagon news conference that no decisions had been made about major exercises for next year, but noted that the suspension of drills this summer as a good-faith gesture to North Korea was not open-ended.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump's June decision to unilaterally suspend the drills caught many American military planners off guard and was broadly criticized as a premature concession to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who Trump wants to give up his nuclear weapons.

 

"We took the step to suspend several of the largest exercises as a good-faith measure coming out of the Singapore summit," Mattis told reporters, referring to the June 12 meeting between Trump and Kim.

 

"We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises," he said, adding that no decisions had yet been made on major exercises for next year.

 

Mattis also said smaller exercises deemed to be exempt from the suspension were ongoing.

 

Mattis' comments on the drills come at a delicate time for negotiations between the United States and North Korea after Trump scrapped plans for a meeting between top officials from both countries.

 

At the June summit, the first meeting between a serving U.S. president and a North Korean leader, Kim agreed in broad terms to work towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. But North Korea has given no indication it is willing to give up its weapons unilaterally as the Trump administration has demanded.

 

Since then, diplomats have failed to advance the process.

 

North Korean officials even warned in a letter to U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week that denuclearisation talks risked falling apart, U.S. officials told Reuters.

 

In particular, the North wants steps towards a peace treaty. The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving U.S.-led U.N. forces technically still at war with North Korea.

 

U.S. officials fear North Korea might turn its attention to cutting a separate deal with South Korea and driving a wedge between the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

 

A South Korea presidential spokesman acknowledged that talks between Washington and Pyongyang were at a stalemate.

"With North Korea and the U.S. remaining stalemated, there is an even bigger need for an inter-Korea summit," Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House, told a briefing.

 

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said this month his planned third summit with North Korea's Kim next month would be another step towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and an end to the Korean War.

 

TRIP CANCELLED

Trump abruptly cancelled his top diplomat’s planned trip to North Korea on Friday, publicly acknowledging for the first time that his effort to get Pyongyang to denuclearize had stalled since his summit with the North's leader.

 

Trump partly blamed China for the lack of progress with North Korea and suggested that talks with Pyongyang, led so far by Pompeo, could be on hold until after Washington resolved its bitter trade dispute with Beijing.

 

On Sunday, North Korea's state media accused the United States of "double-dealing" and "hatching a criminal plot," but did not mention Pompeo's cancelled visit.

 

U.S. intelligence and defence officials have repeatedly expressed doubts about North Korea's willingness to give up its nuclear weapons and they had not expected Pompeo's trip to yield positive results.

 

Mattis declined to comment on the broader diplomatic efforts, deferring to Pompeo's State Department.

 

"We will work very closely, as I said, with the secretary of state and what he needs done we will certainly do to reinforce his effort. But at this time, there is no discussion about further suspensions," Mattis said.

 

The traditional U.S. calendar for other major drills does not pick up again until next spring, officials say, which could give diplomats and military planners time.

 

The U.S.-South Korean exercise calendar hits a high point every spring with the Foal Eagle and Max Thunder drills, which take months to plan.

 

One U.S. defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said preliminary planning for next year's drills was already taking place. Still, the official acknowledged that would not be indicative of whether the drills will go forward.

 

Max Thunder's air combat exercises so unnerved North Korea this year that it issued threatening statements that nearly scuttled the June summit between Trump and Kim.

 

Foal Eagle is designed to simulate war scenarios and involves ground, air, naval and special operations forces.

 

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Arshad Mohammed; Additional reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru, John Walcott, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Cynthia Kim in Seoul; Editing by Mary Milliken, Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-29

[jimmyyy]

bring back team spirit exercises for one year, that will bring him back to the table or get him assassinated by his own people.

[mtls2005]

I'm tired of all this "winning".

 

 

[connda]

Of course not.  Gotta find ways of spending the 700 billion USD that congress gives them even if it means dropping ordinance into the oceans.  Dump enough and maybe congress will give them 750 billion next year -- and fund the increase through Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security cuts as the US infrastructure crumbles. 
Hmmmm.  What's wrong here.  ?

[dirtynomad]

NoKo ain't giving up the nukes

[Tug]

Let the games begin just make sure cadet bone spur is in front

[sup3r1or]

The United States is ruled by military industrial complex. They do not profit from peace, they do not need peace. The biggest arms exporters need conflicts and fictional boogeyman to justify spending and finding new clients for arms deals. They have been at war with someone pretty much 90% of all the time of USA existence. 

[Nyezhov]

3 hours ago, connda said:

 What's wrong here.  ?

How about: The world is such a ****edup place so replete with murderous tyrants, religious fanatics and corpulent/clueless lefties that one nation state alone is forced to stand at the jaws of hell to fight off the demons.

 

Bluntly: You pick. USA or China. Choose wisely

[Nyezhov]

3 hours ago, dirtynomad said:

NoKo ain't giving up the nukes

Thats what the new Bunker Busters are for!

[Becker]

13 hours ago, jimmyyy said:

bring back team spirit exercises for one year, that will bring him back to the table or get him assassinated by his own people.

Yes, exactly what has been done every year since the Korean War will next year finally yield the desired results because.....? 

Oh, is it Cadet Bone Spur's genius that's the catalyst???? 

[Becker]

8 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

How about: The world is such a ****edup place so replete with murderous tyrants, religious fanatics and corpulent/clueless lefties that one nation state alone is forced to stand at the jaws of hell to fight off the demons.

While your post is "slightly" hyperbolic I don't entirely disagree, although the US has never stood alone in the "good fight". 

Too bad that there now is a moral abomination and intellectual dwarf in the WH who couldn't give a **** about anything or anyone but himself. 

[Nyezhov]

2 hours ago, Becker said:

While your post is "slightly" hyperbolic I don't entirely disagree, although the US has never stood alone in the "good fight". 

Too bad that there now is a moral abomination and intellectual dwarf in the WH who couldn't give a **** about anything or anyone but himself. 

Talk about hyperbole 555

[bristolboy]

On 8/28/2018 at 9:35 PM, jimmyyy said:

bring back team spirit exercises for one year, that will bring him back to the table or get him assassinated by his own people.

Doesn't seem he's taking your advice:

Trump Says No Reason to Resume Military Exercises With South Korea

Tweet comes after defense chief said no further cancellations were planned

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-no-reason-to-resume-military-exercises-with-south-korea-1535588867

[mtls2005]

16 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Doesn't seem he's taking your advice:

Trump Says No Reason to Resume Military Exercises With South Korea

Tweet comes after defense chief said no further cancellations were planned

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-no-reason-to-resume-military-exercises-with-south-korea-1535588867

 

 

Yes, am I the only one who is confused on the Administration's policy re: joint Korean military exercises? On, off, flag up, flag down?

 

Is this part of tRUmp's 4D chess abilities?

 

 

[mrwebb8825]

On 8/29/2018 at 7:49 AM, webfact said:

In particular, the North wants steps towards a peace treaty. The 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving U.S.-led U.N. forces technically still at war with North Korea.

This is the Chinese talking. They know that President Trump can launch an attack currently without going through congress for approval we we are still, technecally at war with NK. If Kim gets  a peace treaty, he can do as he wants up to and including a first strike and his people would back him.

President Trump would need a new declaation of war for a first strike if a treaty was ratified.

Time to give Xi's testies another tarrif squeeze and add a few more sanctions on NK maybe.

[bristolboy]

15 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

This is the Chinese talking. They know that President Trump can launch an attack currently without going through congress for approval we we are still, technecally at war with NK. If Kim gets  a peace treaty, he can do as he wants up to and including a first strike and his people would back him.

President Trump would need a new declaation of war for a first strike if a treaty was ratified.

Time to give Xi's testies another tarrif squeeze and add a few more sanctions on NK maybe.

Why would he need a declaration of war to make a first strike? It's been a long time since that has been considered constitutionally necessary.

Doesn't seem XI's been squirming lately.

Maybe if Trump hadn't fondled Kim's in the first place the situation today might be different.

And there's this to consider:

Trump's trade war with China is still raging — here are the states that could end up getting whacked

"The biggest loser from a full-blown trade war with China would be Tennessee, as trade with China accounts for 7.6% of the state's total GDP. Following closely behind are four other states where 5% or more of their state GDP comes from Chinese trade:

• Washington (6.43%)
• California (6.39%)
• South Carolina (5.87%)
• Kentucky (5.39%)

The move also poses a political risk to Trump, since he won 17 of the 24 states where more than 2% of state GDP comes from trade with China. "

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-china-tariff-trade-war-states-map-hurt-2018-8