The US-South Korean Joint Military Exercise “Foal Eagle” is being reorganized a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy said Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis. A military exercise or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations…
The US-South Korean Joint Military Exercise “Foal Eagle” is being reorganized a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy said Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis.
Background
A military exercise or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat. This also serves the purpose of ensuring the combat readiness of garrisoned or deployable forces prior to deployment from home base/home station. War games involving two or more countries allow for better training of military, observations of enemy’s tactics, and shows the strength of each country.
The US and South Korea have been conducting joint military exercises in anticipation of a potential North Korean invasion. The exercises usually involve the testing of dummy ammunitions on target practice, strategic reconnaissance and tactical field operations.
The Foal Eagle exercise has in the recent years included about 11,500 U.S. troops and 290,000 South Korean troops and has consisted of field drills involving ground, air, naval and special operations forces. It has also typically been held together with a computer-simulated exercise known as Key Resolve, which last year included about 12,200 Americans and 10,000 South Korean personnel.
Analysis
In a bid to keep Washington’s ongoing denuclearization talks with North Korea from faltering, U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday that a major joint military exercise with South Korea would be scaled back.
“We have taken a decision,” Mattis said, according to a transcript of a conversation with reporters. “We are not cancelling exercises. We are realigning one exercise.”
Asked if it was the Foal Eagle exercise, a large-scale drill typically held in the spring, Mattis confirmed this was the case.
Mattis did not provide details on what a scaled-back version of the exercise would look like.
The U.S. and South Korea have cancelled their last four scheduled large-scale joint exercises on the Korean Peninsula as part of an attempt to give diplomats more breathing room in the negotiations with Pyongyang. North Korea has long viewed the exercises with scepticism, blasting them as a rehearsal for invasion. The U.S. and the South say are defensive in nature.
On Thursday, North Korean state-run media criticized Seoul for continuing its own military exercises after a spate of meetings and agreements between the two country’s leaders.
“The South Korean military claims that the war drills ‘have nothing to do with inter-Korean agreements’ and ‘are of defensive nature,’” the official Korean Central News Agency said. “Its claim is nothing but a pretext to cover up its sinister intention for confrontation.
“Dialogue and military confrontation, peace and war drills can never go hand in hand,” it added.
U.S. President Donald Trump, just after his landmark June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, unexpectedly announced that he would order a halt to large-scale exercises — a move that caught even the Pentagon by surprise.
The U.S. leader has repeatedly characterized the exercises as “war games,” calling them both “provocative” and “expensive.”
Mattis has worked to reassure Pentagon staff and U.S. officials concerned about the degradation of the combat readiness of the 28,500 U.S. service members in South Korea if the exercises continue to be cancelled.
It’s unclear if any move to downgrade the exercises will help kick-start nuclear negotiations with North Korea. Talks have been largely stalled since Trump and Kim agreed at their historic Singapore summit in June to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has held out hope of a second Kim-Trump meeting early next year.
Assessment
Our assessment is that the scaling down of Washington’s most routine military exercise is a sign of positive change in the Korean peninsula. We believe that the possibilities of a second Trump-Kim summit are bright. We also feel that South Korea’s increasing cooperation with Pyongyang will certainly result in more progressive negotiations in the near future.
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