[Press Conference] President Moon: "Consulting with North Korea on ROK-US Exercises"... Possibility Discussed

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] President Moon Jae-in said on the 18th regarding North Korea's weapons buildup, "The ROK-US joint military exercises can be discussed with North Korea through the Inter-Korean Military Joint Commission."

At the New Year's press conference held at the Blue House Chuncheon Hall on the same day, President Moon said, "The ROK-US combined exercises we conduct are annual exercises," and added, "I want to emphasize once again that these are defensive exercises."

Our government holds the position that this year's ROK-US joint exercises should proceed normally. This is because the three-stage verification process between South Korea and the US must be completed to finalize the transfer of wartime operational control within the current administration.

The ROK and the US have tentatively set the joint exercise schedule for the first half of this year to 16 days in the second week of March and 18 days in mid-August, and are in final coordination. Since normal exercises could not be conducted last year due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), this year the joint exercises must complete the FOC (Full Operational Capability) verification evaluation for the transfer of wartime operational control and agree on the timing of the transfer.

However, the variable is the spread of COVID-19. If COVID-19 does not subside, the schedule will inevitably become uncertain again. In this case, the ROK and the US may reduce the scale of the joint exercises through consultation. However, there is also a side effect where the US side may express reluctance to the transfer of wartime operational control, claiming that the exercise scale was too small to conduct the verification evaluation for the transfer.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.