South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo inspects an American honor guard before attending an annual defense conference. [Reuters/Yonhap News Photo]
WASHINGTON -- South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said that Seoul and Washington will make a decision on plans for next year's major exercises before December 1 after a working-level review.
Jeong made the remarks after the 50th annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) with his U.S. counterpart, James Mattis, where the two sides finalized their decision to suspend the annual Vigilant Ace air exercise originally slated for December. The suspension is aimed at facilitating ongoing diplomacy to build trust with North Korea, denuclearize it and establish a lasting peace regime on the peninsula.
"For our future major exercises, we have discussed today that we will conduct a review from our staff members and have the results of their review until November 15," Jeong said in response to a reporter's question of whether the suspension of the combined drills will weaken military readiness.
"We will make a final decision on any major exercises next year before December 1," he added. Jeong noted that only some of the major combined exercises and drills have been suspended, as he stressed that the allies' militaries have been continuously conducting other exercises as well throughout the year.
Mattis echoed his view. "It's not like we've shut down all the collaborative exercises that we have going on. So we are not right now concerned with a loss of combat capability," he said. "Clearly as we go forward we'll have to make adaptations to ensure we don't lose that capability but right now again this is not a total suspension of all collaboration and military exercises," he added.
The suspension of major allied drills has raised concerns that South Korea and the U.S. might have difficulty assessing whether Seoul has the capability to lead combined forces after the transfer of wartime operational control. At the SCM, the allies agreed to conduct a process to certify South Korea's initial operational capability or IOC next year.
Jeong said that the allies will strive hard to address such concerns. "We'll make sure to concentrate all our assets to that process and to make the necessary preparations so that we can effectively and properly carry out the IOC certification, and thereby reassure our citizens there that they do not need to worry about any falls, any decreases, any negative impacts to our military capabilities or our readiness posture," he said.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
