ROK-U.S. News

Yonhap – S. Korea, U.S. not mulling additional THAAD deployment: defense ministry

SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Yonhap) — South Korea and the United States are not considering the deployment of an additional THAAD anti-missile system here, Seoul’s defense ministry said Monday amid a heated debate on the issue rekindled ahead of the March 9 presidential election.

Boo Seung-chan, the ministry spokesperson, made the remarks, following a media report that a government-commissioned research in 2015 noted the need for South Korea’s military to acquire its own THAAD battery separately from the one currently run by the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).

“Regarding the issue about the introduction of an additional THAAD unit, South Korea and the U.S. have not been planning any additional deployment nor have they been considering it,” Boo told a regular press briefing.

Boo pointed out that South Korea’s military has been developing its own interception system, called L-SAM (Long-range Surface-to-Air Missile), to establish a multilayered, low-tier missile defense system.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system has emerged as a hot-button issue in the election season as Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, pledged last month to push for an “additional THAAD deployment” following a series of North Korean missile tests.

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, has cautioned against an additional THAAD deployment, warning it could trigger pushback from China, South Korea’s largest trading partner.

Power generators and other heavy equipment are transported to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, in this file photo taken April 28, 2021. (Yonhap)

Power generators and other heavy equipment are transported to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, in this file photo taken April 28, 2021. (Yonhap)

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Article: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220207005000325?section=national/defense

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Yonhap – USFK calls THAAD ‘safe, reliable’ system amid renewed political debate

By Song Sang-ho

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) — The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Friday its THAAD anti-missile system installed in South Korea is a “safe and reliable” asset, as a political debate has been rekindled here over the ideologically sensitive matter in the run-up to the March 9 presidential election.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system has emerged as a hot-button issue during the election season, as Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, pledged to push for “additional THAAD deployment” in a Facebook post on Sunday in the wake of North Korea’s missile test binge.

A THAAD battery was first deployed to the southeastern county of Seongju in 2017. It has since been in the status of “temporary installation” pending South Korea’s environmental impact assessment.

“As agreed upon during the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting, both the ROK and U.S. committed to continuing close cooperation regarding THAAD — a safe and reliable defensive system that enables USFK to fulfill its obligation to protect and defend the ROK against any threat or adversary,” USFK spokesperson Col. Lee Peters told Yonhap News Agency. ROK stands for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

Peters was referring to the defense ministerial talks between the South and the U.S. in Seoul in December, where the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the stable stationing of the THAAD battery.

The spokesperson also pointed out that “any decision regarding the future employment of THAAD will be a bilaterally agreed upon decision,” apparently reaffirming Washington’s commitment to handling the alliance issue via close coordination with Seoul.

Since its installation in Seongju, Seoul has sought to support the stable stationing of the THAAD battery, but the efforts have been hampered by residents’ protests amid concerns about potential health risks associated with electromagnetic waves from its radar.

Power generators and other heavy equipment are transported to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, in this photo taken on April 28, 2021. (Yonhap)

Power generators and other heavy equipment are transported to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, in this photo taken on April 28, 2021. (Yonhap)

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Article: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220204008200325?section=national/defense

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Washington Post – John Singlaub, audacious warrior who waged private battle against communism, dies at 100

Then-Lt. John “Jack” Singlaub improving his motorcycle driving skills during World War II. (Courtesy of U.S. Special Operations Command)

John K. Singlaub, a two-star general with a record of wartime derring-do who resigned from the Army in 1978 after openly criticizing President Jimmy Carter’s defense policy, and who later battled communism as a private citizen by funneling weapons and money to rightist insurgents around the world, died Jan. 29 at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 100.

His daughter Mary Ann Singlaub confirmed the death but did not cite a cause.

To his admirers, Gen. Singlaub was the consummate warrior — a brawny, ramrod-straight man of action with the wounds and decorations to prove the truth of the lore that surrounded him. He rose to the rank of major general, and in the course of three wars, he became known as a stealthy commander with a knack for leading death-defying missions in mountains and jungles.

During World War II, he distinguished himself in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, parachuting into German-occupied France and later into China to support anti-Japanese guerrilla forces. He also was the mastermind of a bluff that helped liberate nearly 400 Allied prisoners from a Japanese prison camp.

For the nascent CIA, he headed agency operations in postwar Manchuria, served as a high-level agency official in Korea during the Korean War and organized covert combat operations along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam and in neighboring Laos during the Vietnam War.

Although revered by many military colleagues, he was largely unknown to the public until May 1977, when he was catapulted to the front page of The Washington Post. Serving at the time as chief of staff of U.S. forces in South Korea — the third-ranking Army official on the Korean Peninsula — he did something unusual, even shocking, for a military officer to do. He publicly disagreed with the president.

Carter made a campaign pledge the year before to bring home 32,000 U.S. ground troops stationed in the region over five years. Many officials in the diplomatic and defense establishment had called for more troops to reinforce South Korea’s border with North Korea. They said the border was a vital line of defense against aggressive communist regimes in North Korea and China.

Gen. Singlaub, who later said the interview had been off the record, was ordered to Washington for a meeting with Carter, after which the president said at a news conference that the general had committed “a very serious breach of the propriety that ought to exist among military officers after a policy has been made.”

Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub testifies on Capitol Hill in 1977. (AP)

Carter, Gen. Singlaub liked to note, eventually discarded his plans to remove the troops.

The incident was reminiscent of President Harry S. Truman’s showdown with Gen. Douglas MacArthur over the conduct of the Korean War. MacArthur was relieved of command, and he retired to New York.

Gen. Singlaub was reassigned to Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Ga., as chief of staff, but he continued on a collision course with Carter. He aired further policy differences with the president during a speech at Georgia Tech that hastened his retirement from the Army after 35 years of service.

He was lauded as a hero by conservative politicians such as Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and became a speaker on the far-right lecture circuit, lambasting Carter’s cancellation of the B-1A bomber program.

Staunch anti-communist

Gen. Singlaub started the U.S. Council for World Freedom, an affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League. Later, as president of the international organization, he made what the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith called “substantial progress” in purging the group of neo-Nazis, antisemites and Latin American death-squad leaders.

“We had a Mexican chapter that was really kooky,” he told The Post in 1986. “Blamed everything on the Jews. Even accused Pope John Paul of being a Jew. They were thrown out.”

In addition, Gen. Singlaub was involved with the Western Goals Foundation, a private domestic intelligence group bankrolled by the archconservative Texas oil tycoon Nelson Bunker Hunt to gather information on leftist groups and their leaders.

Gen. Singlaub’s chief function in what the Los Angeles Times called the business of “private-enterprise insurgency” was raising millions of dollars to supply arms to anti-communist irregulars in places such as Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan and Laos.

In the early 1980s, as Congress began curtailing U.S. funding of efforts to overthrow leftist regimes in Nicaragua and elsewhere, Gen. Singlaub and his organizations remained an important conduit of materiel and financial assistance, reportedly with the help of deep-pocketed conservatives and foreign governments.

He was often compared to Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and other major figures in the Reagan administration’s Iran-contra affair. North was among the national security officials who had authorized illegal arms sales to Iran to win the release of U.S. hostages in the Middle East and used some of the profits to support right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras.

In his memoir, “Hazardous Duty” (1991), written with Malcolm McConnell, Gen. Singlaub reserved special contempt for North (a “gullible dupe”) and the shady arms dealers who he said had inflated prices of inferior weapons and pocketed the difference. Their motive, he wrote, “had been profit, not patriotism.”

Gen. Singlaub was never the subject of a criminal investigation. He spent six years and hundreds of thousands of dollars battling a lawsuit — filed by a leftist nonprofit group, the Christic Institute — that promoted conspiracy theories about him and dozens of others with ties to the contras. The lawsuit was resolved in his favor in 1992.

Meanwhile, he opened an office in the Philippines, intending to hunt, he said, for a treasure of gold bullion. He told the Los Angeles Times that his hope was to use the gold to finance anti-communist insurgencies in Southeast Asia. He abandoned the effort after local newspaper reports described the effort as a cover for mercenary training.

Born to march

John Kirk Singlaub was born on his grandfather’s homestead in what is now Independence, Calif., on July 10, 1921. During the summer, young Jack hiked with friends in the eastern Sierra Nevadas, and they tested their fortitude by finding out how many days they could march on what they carried in their rucksacks.

His father worked for the city of Los Angeles, and the Singlaubs eventually settled in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood.

Jack Singlaub, who said his ambition had always been to join the military, enrolled in an ROTC program at the University of California at Los Angeles. With the United States at war, he set aside his studies in 1943, just shy of graduation, to receive an Army commission as a second lieutenant.

Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub in 1977. (James K.W. Atherton/The Washington Post)

Their mission was to help French Resistance fighters prepare for the Allied invasion of the occupied country’s Mediterranean coast, launched about two months after the D-Day invasion of Normandy. (William Casey, the future CIA director, was his case officer. When Casey offered him cyanide pills for use in the event of capture, Gen. Singlaub recalled replying, “No, sir, I don’t intend to get captured.”)

“It was not all bad,” he later told the Warfare History Network, describing the action he saw in France. He said there were families, still living in castles, who would celebrate with the advancing Americans by uncorking fine wine or 50-year-old cognac that they had managed to hide from the Germans. “There was stress, strain, and pain, but you could survive.”

With the Allied march to Berlin underway, Gen. Singlaub volunteered for service in the Pacific to help end the war there. His most intrepid undertaking of the war came on Aug. 27, 1945, after the Americans leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs but before the official Japanese surrender on Sept. 2.

It was feared that Allied prisoners of war would be executed en masse in retribution for the bombings, and Gen. Singlaub headed an eight-man rescue team sent to free American, Australian and Dutch POWs on Hainan Island in the South China Sea. After parachuting in, they were met at the guardhouse by bayonet-wielding Japanese soldiers who attempted to take them prisoner.

Gen. Singlaub was a captain at the time, but he had been advised by an OSS specialist on the Japanese military to pose as a major, the rank above his. With swagger that astonished the Japanese guards, he recalled, he ordered them to watch over the medical and food supplies his team had brought with it.

“There was a Japanese captain there, and I told him he didn’t have enough rank to talk with me,” Gen. Singlaub told the Warfare History Network. “He got on the telephone line and screamed to get connected to his colonel. We listened outside his door, and . . . could hear the captain saying, ‘But, sir, they jumped in broad daylight, the major insists that Japan is surrendering — and he will talk only with you!’ ”

The next day, after the OSS crew spent an unnerving night in a hospital building, the colonel arrived, and Gen. Singlaub negotiated an agreement to provide food and medical attention to the emaciated POWs and arranged for their eventual evacuation.

On brief home leave earlier that year, he married Mary Osborne, with whom he had three children before divorcing. In 1992, he married Joan Lafferty.

In addition to his daughter Mary Ann, of Vienna, Va., and his wife, of Franklin, survivors include his other children, Lis D’Antoni of Davie, Fla., and John O. Singlaub of Zephyr Cove, Nev.; three stepdaughters, Jody Ball of Columbia, Tenn., Sara Guest of Arlington, Tenn., and Debra Satterfield of Franklin; nine grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

After the war, Gen. Singlaub was based at Mukden before the Manchurian city fell to Chinese Communists forces in 1948 and Americans were expelled. He escaped with his cocker spaniel on the last possible flight — “under artillery attack, passing a reconnaissance plane with a red star insignia, knowing this battle of the cold war was lost,” author Tim Weiner wrote in his CIA history “Legacy of Ashes.”

During the Korean War, Gen. Singlaub served as deputy chief of the CIA mission on the peninsula and later as an Army battalion commander, for which he received the Silver Star for valor in combat. He then joined the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He completed his UCLA degree in 1958, majoring in political science.

His other military decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Soldier’s Medal, the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

Nicknamed “Jumping Jack” Singlaub, he chaired the board of a forerunner to the U.S. Parachute Association and led the Army parachute team in international competitions. He was chairman of the OSS Society, a group that seeks to preserve the spy agency’s legacy.

Years after leaving the Army, he started wearing his dog tags again — a decision he made when he “returned to war,” this time allied with the contras, and faced possible ambush, he wrote in his memoir.

“That would be one way to at least identify my body,” he added. “Then I understood that the gesture was also symbolic of my commitment. Once I put those worn old steel tags back around my neck, I decided to keep them on until the war was over. I am still wearing them today.”


Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/general-john-singlaub-commando-dead/2022/01/31/68486e7e-6a20-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html

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Yonhap – N.K. missile frenzy highlights ‘go-it-alone’ drive for weapons buildup: analysts

By Song Sang-ho

SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Yonhap) — North Korea’s weekend launch of an “intermediate-and long-range” ballistic missile underscores the intransigent regime’s stated arms buildup in progress under a go-it-alone approach and its eagerness to tighten internal solidarity ahead of key political events, analysts here said Monday.

In its seventh show of force this year, Pyongyang launched the Hwasong 12-type missile Sunday, just days ahead of the Beijing Olympics and despite dialogue overtures by Seoul and Washington.

The latest launch came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is apparently intent on whipping up national pride ahead of major holidays — the 80th birthday of his late father, Kim Jong-il, on Feb. 16 and the 110th birthday of his late grandfather Kim Il-sung on April 15, the analysts said.

The North’s saber-rattling has posed an unsettling setback for Seoul striving to salvage its fragile peace drive, Washington preoccupied with tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and Beijing setting the mood for its successful hosting of the Winter Olympics set to begin Friday.

This composite photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, shows its intermediate-range ballistic missile, Hwasong-12, being launched on Jan. 30, 2022. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

This composite photo, released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, shows its intermediate-range ballistic missile, Hwasong-12, being launched on Jan. 30, 2022. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

“The North appears to be moving under its own timelines for its weapons development projects unveiled at the eighth ruling party congress last year and for its major political events,” a security expert said on condition of anonymity. “Internal factors appear to have much influence on its course of action.”

Amid a protracted deadlock in nuclear talks with the United States, the North has been doubling down on the five high-stakes defense projects it put forward at the eighth congress of the ruling Workers’ Party in January last year.

The projects include developing a hypersonic warhead, raising the “hit rates” of missiles with the range of 15,000 kilometers, producing a “super-large” nuclear warhead and developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) using an “underground or ground solid-fuel engine.”

At the congress, the North also stressed the need to develop tactical nuclear weapons, and secure a nuclear-powered submarine and a nuclear strategic weapon capable of being launched underwater as it castigated the “military threat from the U.S.”

Evidence has been mounting that the North has been trying to accomplish those projects.

Sunday’s launch of what South Korea’s military categorizes as an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) might be part of efforts to enhance the accuracy of a longer-range missile and its atmospheric reentry technology, and develop a vehicle capable of delivering a tactical nuclear weapon, experts said.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) stressed Monday that the Hwasong-12 missile is “being produced and deployed” — an indication that it has completed its operational deployment following its 2017 claim to have completed its development.

The KCNA also released images of its liftoff from a mobile launcher and flight during the boost phase, as well as those of the Earth taken in space. The images appear to have been taken by drones and a camera installed in the payload.

Pyongyang also conducted self-proclaimed hypersonic missile tests on Jan. 5 and 11 following the first such test last September.

“Through the development of weapons, the North appears to have boosted the morale of its people when the country as a whole is grappling with worsening economic hardships in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the security expert said.

“It’s a typical pattern in which the North highlights external threats to reinforce internal cohesion, engages in provocations and then utilizes subsequent international sanctions to underscore the threats from without,” he added.

The North’s apparent move to brinkmanship comes in the lead-up to the country’s major holidays when there is an apparent political imperative for the regime to instill a sense of pride into its citizens struggling with ever-worsening economic travails.

“Pyongyang also wants to boost national pride as it gears up to celebrate political anniversaries in the context of economic struggles,” Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University, said.

Domestic factors have emerged as a crucial variable in the analysis of motives behind the North’s weapons tests as a set of external elements, including the Beijing Games, had been expected to deter Pyongyang’s military moves.

This month, the North conducted four known rounds of missile tests in sites close to the border with China, although it might be aware Beijing does not want the launches to overshadow the Olympics, especially following the U.S.’ diplomatic boycott of the event.

In particular, the move is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any launch using ballistic missile technology, which would force China into joining the global move to consider or roll out new punitive measures against its neighbor.

Observers said the launches close to the border could signal either the North’s possible friction with its patron, China, or Beijing’s acquiescence to the weapons tests.

The North’s missile testing frenzy has also stumped some analysts that had thought Pyongyang could take a wait-and-see stance for the time being as its year-end ruling party plenary did not send any particular message to Seoul and Washington while focusing on chronic food shortages and other domestic issues.

The provocative mode is seen as an ominous sign that the North could further ratchet up tensions with more powerful weapons tests as it issued a thinly veiled threat on Jan. 20 to lift a voluntary moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests declared in April 2018.

Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, said that the test of the latest IRBM potentially capable of delivering a tactical nuclear warhead could mark a culmination of the North’s decadeslong drive for nuclear armament.

“The nuclear-tipped IRBM and other missiles could keep South Korea, Japan and even Guam hostage, and lead to a situation in which the removal of such tactical arms becomes impossible, meaning the North cannot help but be viewed as a de facto nuclear power,” Park said.

“Then would come the next stage of nuclear arms restrictions (between the U.S. and the North) rather than the North’s denuclearization,” he added.

For South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the North’s escalatory military actions mean a major blow to his peace initiative where he has put much political capital.

But those actions might have served as a sobering reminder for the Joe Biden administration whose repeated dialogue offers to the North have started to be taken with a grain of salt or written off as perfunctory, observers noted.

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Article: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220131000400325?section=national/defense

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Yonhap – N. Korea fires two apparent cruise missiles from land: Seoul official

By Song Sang-ho

SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) — North Korea seems to have test-fired at least two cruise missiles from an inland area, a South Korean official said, in what would be Pyongyang’s fifth known round of missile launches this year.

“We still need to conduct a detailed analysis (on the launches),” the military official told reporters on condition of anonymity. “But I want to say that should such a missile be launched southward, our detection and interception systems have no problem countering it.”

The official did not offer details, including origins and targets.

The North conducted the last known test of a cruise missile in September last year. At the time, it claimed to have fired a “new-type long-range cruise missile,” calling it a “strategic weapon of great significance.”

A cruise missile test does not run afoul of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any launch using ballistic missile technology.

Usually, the South’s military does not make any formal announcement or statement in response to the North’s cruise missile tests, versus swift public reaction against its ballistic missile activities.

The North fired what it called two tactical guided missiles on Jan. 17, just three days after its purported test-firing of two other missiles by its railway-borne unit.

It also shot what it claims to be hypersonic missiles on Jan. 5 and 11, raising concerns they could dodge South Korea’s missile defense, though the authenticity of the assertions has yet to be vouched for.

In a sign the recalcitrant regime could engage in more provocative acts, Pyongyang made a thinly-veiled threat last Thursday to lift its yearslong self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

This photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 18, 2022, shows a tactical guided missile being launched the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

This photo, released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 18, 2022, shows a tactical guided missile being launched the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

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Korea-US Alliance Foundation January 2022 Newsletter

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Yonhap – Defense minister stresses military’s ‘will, efforts’ for OPCON transfer assessment

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s Defense Minister Suh Wook called on all armed services Wednesday to unify their “will and efforts” to ensure this year’s planned assessment required for the envisioned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) will proceed successfully.

Suh made the remarks during a meeting of top commanders to evaluate South Korea’s efforts to retake OPCON from the United States, as the allies are set to stage the full operational capability (FOC) assessment later this year.

Defense Minister Suh Wook (C) attends a meeting with top commanders to discuss progress in South Korea's efforts to retake wartime operational control from the United States at the defense ministry in Seoul on Jan. 19, 2022, in this photo provided by the ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Defense Minister Suh Wook (C) attends a meeting with top commanders to discuss progress in South Korea’s efforts to retake wartime operational control from the United States at the defense ministry in Seoul on Jan. 19, 2022, in this photo provided by the ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

During their annual defense ministerial talks in December, Seoul and Washington agreed to conduct the assessment this fall. Later, Seoul officials said the allies will discuss the possibility of holding it earlier than planned, but its exact timing has yet to be announced.

“Especially, the minister stressed the need for all armed services to unify their will and efforts for a successful FOC assessment,” the defense ministry said in a press release.

The minister also portrayed the conditions-based OPCON transfer as an essential task to achieve the goal of “steadfast” defense under the mindset that “our defense is our responsibility,” according to the ministry.

Wednesday’s meeting was attended by top South Korean defense officials, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Won In-choul and top commanders of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

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Article: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220119006100325?section=national/defense

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Yonhap – S. Korea, U.S. mull delaying combined drills to April due to presidential election: sources

By Song Sang-ho

SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) — South Korea and the United States are considering postponing their combined springtime military exercise, usually held in March, to April due to the March 9 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple sources said Thursday.

The allies have been discussing the possible delay in consideration of the virus’ unabated spread and the need to ensure South Korean troops can exercise their voting rights in the election unhindered by the round-the-clock command post training, the sources said.

The move also comes amid worries that preparations for the exercise, albeit defensive in nature, could impede Seoul’s efforts to resume inter-Korean dialogue and could go against the Olympic spirit of peace at the Beijing Games slated for next month.

“There have been discussions on the possible postponement due to the election season and the coronavirus woes,” an informed source told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.

Seoul and Washington conduct two major regular joint exercises each year — one in March and the other in August — to reinforce their defense capabilities against possible North Korean aggression.

For past major allied exercises, South Korea’s presidential election hardly affected their timing as voting took place in December.

But Election Day changed to March 9 in 2017 following the ouster of former scandal-hit President Park Geun-hye. Incumbent President Moon Jae-in began his single, five-year term in May that year, two months after the election.

Asked to confirm the allies’ discussions on the exercise, Seoul’s defense ministry said the two sides are still in talks over the details.

“The authorities of South Korea and the U.S. are in consultation over the specific timing and method of the exercise,” a ministry official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) refused to comment on the exercise plans.

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on planned or executed combined training, and any decision regarding combined training will be made by the U.S.-ROK alliance,” USFK spokesperson Col. Lee Peters told Yonhap. ROK stands for South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.

On Tuesday last week, Boo Seong-chan, the ministry’s spokesperson, said that details, including the timing and scale of this year’s combined exercises, have yet to be finalized.

His remarks came after Radio Free Asia reported that the U.S. Department of Defense said there have been “no changes” to the schedule for the allies’ training and exercise.

This file photo, taken Aug. 5, 2021, shows military vehicles at U.S. military base Camp Casey in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul. (Yonhap)

This file photo, taken Aug. 5, 2021, shows military vehicles at U.S. military base Camp Casey in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul. (Yonhap)

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Yonhap – Defense officials from S. Korea, U.S. Japan discuss N. Korea’s missile threats

SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) — Senior defense officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan held phone talks Thursday to discuss North Korea’s recent missile launches and reaffirmed the importance of trilateral security cooperation, Seoul’s defense ministry said.

The phone talks came two days after North Korea fired what it claimed to be a hypersonic missile into the East Sea, the second such launch in less than a week.

During the conversation, Deputy Defense Minister Kim Man-ki, Ely Ratner, the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, and Kazuo Masuda from the Japanese defense ministry shared their views on the security situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula, including the North’s latest missile launches, according to the ministry.

“South Korea and the U.S., in particular, agreed to accelerate an in-depth analysis and preparations of response measures against North Korea’s growing missile threats,” the ministry said in a statement.

The officials reaffirmed the importance of security cooperation among the three countries, and agreed to hold three-way defense ministerial talks at an agreed upon date, it added.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan earlier pushed for a defense ministerial meeting in Hawaii this month, but postponed the schedule due to the virus situation.

The three countries last held a trilateral defense ministerial meeting on the margins of security talks involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok in November 2019.

This photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 12, 2022, shows what the North claims to be a new hypersonic missile being launched the previous day. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who watched the firing, "appreciated the practical achievements" made by those involved in research related to the missile development. South Korea's defense ministry said the previous day the North fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the East Sea. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

This photo, released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 12, 2022, shows what the North claims to be a new hypersonic missile being launched the previous day. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who watched the firing, “appreciated the practical achievements” made by those involved in research related to the missile development. South Korea’s defense ministry said the previous day the North fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the East Sea. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

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Yonhap – N. Korea says it successfully conducted final test-firing of hypersonic missile

By Choi Soo-hyang

SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) — North Korea said Wednesday it has successfully conducted the final test-firing of a new hypersonic missile a day earlier, as it continues to develop new weapons systems amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the United States.

On Tuesday, South Korea’s defense ministry said the North fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the East Sea which flew over 700 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 60 km and a top speed of Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound.

“The test-fire was aimed at the final verification of overall technical specifications of the developed hypersonic weapon system,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended the firing.

During Tuesday’s test, the hypersonic glide vehicle demonstrated “glide jump flight,” “corkscrew maneuvering,” and hit “the set target in waters 1,000 km off.”

“The superior maneuverability of the hypersonic glide vehicle was more strikingly verified through the final test-fire,” the KCNA said.

This photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 12, 2022, shows what the North claims to be a new hypersonic missile being launched the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

This photo, released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 12, 2022, shows what the North claims to be a new hypersonic missile being launched the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

Kim expressed “great expectations” that the officials in the missile research sector would “help bolster the war deterrent of the country with their continued ultra-modern scientific research achievements.”

The latest firing marked the North’s second missile launch in less than a week.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier downplayed the North’s hypersonic missile claims as “exaggeration,” but said the latest launch demonstrated “improvement” from the previously tested versions.

The North conducted the first test-firing of what it claimed to be a “hypersonic” missile Hwasong-8 in last September, though the missile flew at a speed of around Mach 3 at that time.

Developing a hypersonic weapon was one of the North’s “five core tasks” under a five-year plan to strengthen its defense capabilities unveiled at its eighth party congress held a year ago.

On Tuesday, Kim again stressed “the need to further accelerate the efforts to steadily build up the country’s strategic military muscle both in quality and quantity.”

The North’s latest saber-rattling came as nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang remain stalled since the no-deal Hanoi summit in February 2019.

President Moon Jae-in expressed concern over North Korea’s repeated missile launches ahead of South Korea’s presidential election in March, and ordered officials to come up with measures to ensure “no further tension in inter-Korean relations.”

The White House also condemned North Korea’s latest launch and urged the North to engage in dialogue.

scaaet@yna.co.kr
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Article: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20220112000452325?section=nk/nk

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