The suspension or reduction in springtime military drills by the United States and South Korea have been suspended or reduced too much smaller ones as a show of effort on their parts to support diplomacy to resolve the nuclear crisis with North Korea.
Sources say that North Korea has received a “temporary Olive Branch” regarding these drills since North Korean administration viewed these exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion.
Washington confirmed in a press release that South Korea and the United States military defense leaders decided to end “Key Resolve” and operation “Foal Eagle” military drills, however, they firmly emphasized that their “military forces are fully capable and ready”.
The United States defense secretary along with his counterpart South Korean minister made it very clear that the alliance between the two countries decided to adopt a more “neutral stance that reflects the government’s desire to tone down any tensions” and at the same time “supporting diplomacy” and efforts in achieving “total denuclearization ” within the entire Korean peninsula.
Discussions To Denuclearize North Korea
Officials from the United States have confirmed that this reduced training is going to consist of “simulations” as well as “tabletop exercises” involving much smaller military units like battalions and even companies rather than the usual massive formation of thousands of troops from both sides combined.
Former defense secretary Jim Mattis back in November said that the United States along with South Korea are going to “scale back” and or “tone down” there spring drills or exercises in an effort to “preserve diplomacy regarding North Korea’s nuclear Arsenal”.
He did describe this reorganizing of military drills as merely a “maneuver and not the ending” of present or future drills within the peninsula.
According to the Trump administration, President Donald Trump complained many times in the past regarding the “expense” of these massive military training drills throughout the North Korean peninsula.
Most recently Donald Trump confirmed his concerns regarding expenditure after meeting North Korean leader for the second time in Hanoi on Thursday, even though the meeting did not produce any positive results, Trump stated that “it’s a very expensive thing and we do have to think about that, too.”
President Trump likewise was and is pushing Southern Korea to boost its “financial obligation” for drills associated with United States soldiers, ( almost 30,000 of them) that are stationed in South Korea.
President Trump put on his best poker face and threatened to “withdraw soldiers” from Japan as well as South Korea if they refused to come up with “more cash” to support military troops stationed in those countries.
North Korea and the United States continue blaming each other shortly after ending the Summit discussions within Hanoi, which both parties almost walked out from.
The state of war within the Korean peninsula remains very much active, it never ended, it was only granted a “temporary armistice” and never a total “peace treaty”, internal sources have pointed out.
