Latest news with #U.S.ForcesKorea
Time of India
an hour ago
- Politics
- Time of India
'Putin's mammoth war machine…': U.S. Commanders' confession shocks Senators
Top U.S. military commanders delivered a stark warning to Senators, leaving the chamber visibly unsettled. As Putin's war machine steadily grows, a dangerous three-way axis with China and North Korea is emerging. With American forces stretched thin and fresh threats building near Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula, alarm bells are sounding in Washington. WATCH as leaders of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Forces Korea testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee. This hearing was held on April 10, 2025. Show more Show less
UPI
2 days ago
- Business
- UPI
South Korea's Lee, Trump to hold summit at White House on Aug. 25
1 of 2 | South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Washington this month for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on Aug. 5, Lee's office said Tuesday. File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI | License Photo SEOUL, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Washington to hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on Aug. 25, Lee's office said Tuesday, with trade and defense issues expected to be at the top of the agenda. The three-day visit will be Lee's first trip to the United States since taking office in June, presidential spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung said at a press briefing. "The two leaders plan to discuss ways to develop the Korea-U.S. alliance into a future comprehensive strategic alliance in response to the changing international security and economic environment," Kang said. "They will also discuss ways to further strengthen the robust South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture and to cooperate to establish peace and achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula," she added. The summit comes weeks after Seoul and Washington struck a trade deal that lowered Trump's threatened 25% tariffs on South Korean goods to 15%. As part of the package, South Korea pledged to invest $350 billion in the United States and to purchase $100 billion in U.S. energy. Based on the tariff deal, Trump and Lee will consult on economic cooperation in semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding, as well as partnerships in advanced technologies and key minerals, Kang said. The future of the decades-old South Korea-U.S. military alliance is also expected to be in the spotlight as the two countries prepare to kick off their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise on Monday. During his previous term in office, Trump called for massive increases in Seoul's financial contribution for the 28,500 U.S. forces stationed in Korea. Seoul signed a new five-year cost-sharing agreement with Washington in October, but Trump has suggested he would look to renegotiate the terms of the deal amid calls for allies to increase their defense spending. "South Korea is making a lot of money, and they're very good," Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting in the White House last month. "They're very good, but, you know, they should be paying for their own military." On Friday, Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, discussed the need to restructure the military alliance in response to an evolving regional security environment. "Alliance modernization ... reflects the recognition that the world's changed around us," Brunson told local reporters at a press briefing in Pyeongtaek. "We have a nuclear-armed adversary who's north of the border. We have increasing involvement of Russia, along with the DPRK, and we also have the Chinese and the threat that they pose to a free and open Indo-Pacific." The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea. Brunson avoided the question of a potential of U.S. troop reduction on the peninsula, stressing military capabilities and strategic flexibility over numbers ahead of the Lee-Trump summit. "We're going to have two chief executives sitting down together to discuss not only the security situation in the region, but the security situation in the world," he said. "For us, it's about the capabilities. We want to have the right capabilities resident on the Peninsula." Lee will be in the United States from Aug. 24-26 for his summit with Trump. In response to local media reports that Lee may also stop in Japan around the time of his U.S. trip, presidential spokeswoman Kang said that nothing had been confirmed.
2 days ago
- Business
South Korean President Lee will travel to Washington for Aug. 25 meeting with Trump
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's new President Lee Jae Myung will travel to Washington later this month to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, Lee's office said Tuesday, for talks on trade and defense cooperation in the face of nuclear-armed North Korea and other threats. Their Aug. 25 summit will follow a July trade deal in which Washington agreed to cut its reciprocal tariff on South Korea to 15% from the initially proposed 25% and to apply the same reduced rate to South Korean cars, the country's top export to the United States. South Korea also agreed to purchase $100 billion in U.S. energy and invest $350 billion in the country, and Lee and Trump may discuss how the investment package will be structured and managed. The talks are expected to cover expanding cooperation in key industries such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding, Lee's spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said. Lee, a liberal who won an early election in June to replace ousted conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, has made the economy his top priority, aiming to shield the trade-dependent nation from the shocks of Trump's tariff hikes and his demands that allies cut reliance on Washington and shoulder more of their own defense costs. Lee's meeting with Trump comes amid concerns in Seoul that the Trump administration could shake up the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the U.S. troop presence in South Korea and possibly move to reduce it as Washington shifts more focus on China. Lee and Trump will discuss strengthening the allies' defense posture against growing North Korean threats, and also developing the partnership into a 'future-oriented, comprehensive strategic alliance' to address the changing international security and economic environment, according to Kang, who didn't elaborate on the specific issues to be addressed. Dating back to his first term, Trump has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the 28,500 American troops stationed on its soil. Recent comments by key Trump administration officials, including Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, have also suggested a desire to restructure the alliance, which some experts say could potentially affect the size and role of U.S. forces in South Korea. Under this approach, South Korea would take a greater role in countering North Korean threats while U.S. forces focus more on China, possibly leaving Seoul to face reduced benefits but increased costs and risks, experts say. In a meeting with South Korean reporters last week, Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, stressed the need to 'modernize' the alliance to address the evolving security environment, including North Korea's expanding nuclear program, its deepening alignment with Russia, and what he called Chinese threats to a 'free and open Indo-Pacific.' When asked about a potential reduction in U.S. troops in South Korea, Brunson emphasized capabilities over numbers, highlighting advanced systems like fifth-generation fighters, and also stressed strategic flexibility, citing the recent deployment of Patriot air defense systems from South Korea to the Middle East. 'What's being asked of Korea is to be stronger against DPRK — that we might have the flexibility as we modernize our alliance so that we could go do other things,' Brunson said, using the initials of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. During his first term, Trump suspended U.S. military exercises with South Korea while pursuing diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. They met three times in 2018 and 2019 but their diplomacy quickly collapsed over disagreements about exchanging the release of U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North's steps to wind down its nuclear and missile program. Kim has since suspended virtually all diplomacy with Washington and Seoul while accelerating the expansion of his weapons program. His foreign policy priority is now Russia, which he has supplied with weapons and troops to help prolong Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Kim's powerful sister recently dismissed Washington and Seoul's stated desires to restart diplomacy aimed at defusing the North's nuclear program, indicating that Pyongyang feels no urgency to resume diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. Tensions on the peninsula could rise again later this month, when South Korea and the United States proceed with their annual large-scale combined military exercises, which begin on Aug. 18. North Korea labels the allies' joint drills as invasion rehearsals and often uses them as a pretext to dial up military demonstrations and weapons tests aimed at advancing its nuclear program.
The Diplomat
6 days ago
- Business
- The Diplomat
Seoul's Strategic Dilemma: Navigating a High-Stakes Summit With Trump
When Donald Trump and Lee Jae-myung meet, the very definition of the 70-year-old South Korea-U.S. alliance will be on the table. 'Fasten your seat belt. We are going through turbulence.' This was the stark metaphor South Korea's new foreign minister, Cho Hyun, offered in a recent interview to describe the global security environment. His words aptly capture the challenge facing Seoul as President Lee Jae-myung prepares for his first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, expected later this month. Cho's diplomatic debut in Washington – marked by a crucial meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio – has set the stage for a high-stakes encounter. With a contentious trade deal now settled, the focus has pivoted entirely to the more perilous terrain of defense and security, where the very definition of the 70-year-old South Korea-U.S. alliance is on the table. The summit's agenda will be driven by Trump's transactional worldview, forcing the new progressive administration in Seoul to navigate a set of formidable U.S. demands. The central thesis of the summit is clear: the South Korea-U.S. alliance must now prove its 'return on investment' to a skeptical Washington. This will test Lee's statesmanship as he attempts to secure ironclad U.S. security guarantees against North Korea while parrying a relentless U.S. push for Seoul to 'pay up and pivot' toward confronting China – a dilemma starkly reflected in his foreign minister's recent tightrope diplomacy and Beijing's wary response. Washington's New Calculus: The Price of a 'Modernized' Alliance Trump's primary demands are expected to be as direct as they are challenging, coalescing around two core pillars: a radical increase in financial contributions and a strategic pivot toward countering China, all packaged under the diplomatic framework of 'alliance modernization.' The 'pay up' component is familiar ground. Drawing from the playbook of his first term, Trump is widely expected to open negotiations over the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) with an astronomical figure to anchor the conversation. More strategically significant, however, is the 'pivot.' This push is being championed by key administration figures like Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a principal architect of the 'America First' security strategy. In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Colby praised South Korea as a 'role model' for its defense spending and willingness to take the lead against North Korean threats, yet simultaneously emphasized that the two allies are 'closely aligned on the need to modernize the alliance.' For Colby and this school of strategists, 'modernization' means rectifying what they see as a strategic misallocation of resources. As one senior South Korean official recently acknowledged, this means there 'may be changes to the role and character of USFK.' This 'modernization' is not about minor adjustments. It is a fundamental effort to repurpose U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), moving beyond its traditional mission of deterring North Korea to endow it with the 'strategic flexibility' for regional contingencies aimed at China. This could be achieved not by altering the 28,500 statutory troop cap, but by changing the mission sets of those forces or withholding rotational deployments, a move potentially justified under broad interpretations of the 1953 Mutual Defense Treaty. The official readout from the Cho-Rubio meeting confirmed this is not mere speculation. It explicitly noted that both sides 'emphasized that maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait was an indispensable element' of international security and discussed the importance of advancing 'U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral cooperation.' Seoul's High-Wire Act: Defending Sovereignty and Security Faced with this immense pressure, the Lee administration must perform a delicate balancing act. Cho's Washington Post interview provided a masterclass in this high-wire diplomacy. He acknowledged China as a 'challenge' and 'competitor' but immediately stressed the 'need for engaging China, because simply trying to block China will not be as effective as we want.' This careful phrasing, however, was interpreted in Beijing as 'ambivalence,' with Chinese state-affiliated media warning Seoul not to be used as leverage by a 'third party.' This exchange vividly illustrates the bind Seoul is in: every statement intended to reassure Washington is scrutinized in Beijing, and vice-versa. This strategic divergence exposes underlying fault lines in the alliance. As noted by analysts in Seoul, the official U.S. call for the 'complete denuclearization of the DPRK' or North Korea – a phrase included in the State Department readout – differs subtly but significantly from the traditional preference of South Korean progressive governments for 'denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,' a broader formulation designed to create space for dialogue with Pyongyang. To counter Washington's pressure, Lee will arrive with his own non-negotiable demands. The top priority will be securing an ironclad, unambiguous reaffirmation of U.S. extended deterrence, including the nuclear umbrella. With North Korea's deepening military cooperation with Russia, any ambiguity in the U.S. commitment is an existential threat. Alongside this, South Korea's president will push for progress on the transfer of wartime military operational control (OPCON). This long-standing goal, domestically framed as a matter of military sovereignty, inherently resonates with the U.S. administration's burden-sharing narrative by demonstrating Seoul's commitment to greater self-reliance. Redefining Success in a Transactional World Ultimately, the stakes of this summit are monumental, both for Lee's government and for the future of Northeast Asian security. His credibility as a statesman is on the line as he navigates between Trump's demands, China's red lines, and a deeply polarized domestic public still emerging from a major political crisis. Success, therefore, will not be defined by a grand bargain or a transformative joint vision. Rather, it will be measured by the skillful management of risk and the preservation of core interests. A successful outcome for Lee would be returning to Seoul having secured a manageable, multiyear SMA deal, a joint statement that reaffirms the alliance's strength without explicitly committing USFK to an anti-China mission, and a strong public reaffirmation from Trump on extended deterrence and troop levels. The primary criterion is to leave Washington with the South Korea-U.S. alliance intact, but without having started a new crisis with either Washington or Beijing. In the turbulent world of transactional diplomacy, a calm news cycle following the summit would be the clearest sign of victory.
UPI
7 days ago
- Politics
- UPI
U.S., South Korea to start large-scale joint military drills Aug. 18
1 of 3 | South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Col. Lee Sung-jun (L) and U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Ryan Donald hold a press briefing at Seoul's Defense Ministry on Thursday to announce the upcoming Ulchi Freedom Shield 25 joint military exercise. The exercise will take place from Aug. 18-28. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI SEOUL, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The United States and South Korea will kick off a major joint military exercise this month, both countries announced Thursday, with a focus on deterring North Korea's growing threats amid unrequited diplomatic outreach from Seoul. The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise will take place Aug. 18-28 and will incorporate "realistic threats, including lessons learned from recent conflicts ... to further strengthen the Alliance's readiness and capabilities through combined, joint, all-domain operations," the militaries said in a joint statement. The exercise will include live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills. "This iteration of UFS 25 will be executed on a similar scale to the previous iteration," Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a joint press briefing in Seoul on Thursday. Some 18,000 South Korean troops will take part, Lee said. U.S. Forces Korea did not disclose the number of participating troops. The exercise comes as the administration of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is attempting to improve frayed relations with Pyongyang, which frequently condemns the allies' joint drills as rehearsals for an invasion. Col. Lee said that roughly half of the 40 planned field training exercises will be rescheduled to next month, but dismissed any political motives behind the decision. "The military has comprehensively assessed based on multiple factors, including ensuring training conditions due to the recent heat wave, as well as maintaining a balanced ROK-U.S. combined readiness posture ... and made the decision to reschedule certain training events to next month," Lee said. "Any training events linked to the combined exercise scenario as well as [those] having any deployed assets or personnel to the Peninsula by the U.S. will proceed as planned," he added. North Korea, which has strengthened military ties with Russia and continues to develop its nuclear and missile programs, will be a focus of the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Ryan Donald said at the briefing. "We'll work to deter and defeat the DPRK's various threats, such as their weapons of mass destruction," Donald said, using the official acronym for North Korea. The training will draw on information from ongoing military conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, he said, as well as the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. "We take those lessons learned from the modern battlefield and incorporate that," Donald said. "We are focused on assuring the alliance remains strategically sustainable, credibly deters aggression from the DPRK and addresses broader regional challenges." The exercise will also address threats from terrorism, drones, GPS jamming and cyberattacks, both officials said. It will include a scenario on a North Korean missile launch but would not cover nuclear use by Pyongyang, Lee added. North Korea has not yet publicly commented on this year's exercise. Last week, Kim Yo Jong -- the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Yo Jong -- condemned Seoul's "blind trust" in its military alliance with Washington and rejected efforts by the Lee Jae Myung administration to improve relations. In their joint statement released Thursday, the allies stressed that the exercise is "defensive in nature." In addition to U.S. and South Korean forces, personnel from other member countries of the United Nations Command will join the exercise, while the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission will observe to monitor compliance with the Armistice Agreement. The U.S.-led UNC plays a key role in maintaining and enforcing the armistice agreement that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, with duties that include controlling DMZ access and communicating with the North Korean military.
