Trump's vow to end military drills with Seoul stuns a region

[left-of-center2012]

SINGAPORE —

President Donald Trump rocked the region with the stunning announcement Tuesday that he was halting annual U.S.-South Korean military drills — and wants to remove the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the South as a deterrent against North Korea.

Trump's surprise, almost offhand comments, made during a news conference after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, seemingly upended decades of the U.S. defense posture on the Korean Peninsula.

The remarks contradicted countless previous declarations by U.S. political and military officials over the years that the drills are routine, defensive and absolutely critical.

Trump has now essentially adopted the standard North Korean line, calling the military exercises a "provocative" drain of money and announcing they would stop while he continues talks with Kim, whom he repeatedly praised as a solid negotiating partner.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. So he gave away the store in exchange for Kim's promise

to talk some more about maybe denuclearizing a little bit, some day.

I'm sure South Korea and Japan are delighted.

[gratuitous]

4. The word our media anchors will be groping for is "appeasement"

Once again, the Supreme Leader makes an empty promise. This time, though, the U.S. gives away a measure of security for our South Korean allies, and doesn't require anything on North Korea's part to keep up their end of the bargain. No inspections, no independent observers, no going back on massive human rights violations and crimes against humanity. But Donald got to hold up a piece of paper with his signature scribbled on it, so life is grand, isn't it?

Somewhere on another astral plane, Neville Chamberlain is shaking his head and muttering.

[d_r]

8. "surrender"

Th easiest way to end the Korean war was to surrender.

[TheBlackAdder]

2. Dang! It just goes to show you, if you have something to offer the guy, he's up for sale.

[B2G]

3. Aren't the war games an annual event, and

they were held in the spring this year?

A lot can happen between now and then. Do you really think the US will follow through on this if N Korea doesn't? I don't.

[bornfree17]

5. Don't spoil

The narrative

[Kaleva]

12. Resuming the drills would be an escalation

A commitment to suspend the drills IF NK showed confirmable progress towards denuclearization would have been a better route.

[jmowreader]

13. There are two major ROK-US exercises held every year.

The most important one is currently called Key Resolve. Before that it was RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) and before that it was called Team Spirit. This exercise involves bringing forces in from outside Korea, and it is - or was, anyway - conducted because the springtime is seen as the ideal time for the North Koreans to invade the South. We want to reinforce the 2nd Division and the ROK Army, and as long as they're in country anyway we might as well do a little training.

The second is Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, which started out as Ulchi-Focus Lens. North Korea calls this "preparation for war" - yeah, that's what all military exercises actually are - and it was started because North Korea's special purpose forces tried to invade the South Korean presidential mansion and assassinate the president. This is a completely computerized command post exercise; no troops are on the ground for this one.

There used also to be the Foal Eagle exercises, but now the activities done during Foal Eagle are conducted during Key Resolve.

Trump is also talking about removing US forces from South Korea. Since the ROK has an army too small to hold off the DPRK without the US Army's help, removing 8th Army will have the same result as removing US forces from Vietnam - it will lead to a communist takeover of the entire peninsula.

[B2G]

14. Great information, thank you.

My nephew is being deployed to S Korea soon and am eager to learn all I can about the area.

[D_Master81]

6. How long until Trump Tower Pyongyang is announced?

[brush]

7. People around the world are laughing at what an easy mark trump is.

He's pulling out troops and stopping the military exercises without getting anything in exchange but vague promises.

He got fleeced and doesn't even know it.

[moondust]

9. Pooty and Xi are grinning.

Between pulling out of TPP and this unilateral stand-down, TheRump seems to be handing them all of East Asia. Maybe that was his plan all along. In exchange for what? Private business deals? Isn't that what he does?

Would love to know some flies on the walls in Seoul, Tokyo, and Sydney.

[Kaleva]

10. Arsonists find fire dept. holding drills to be provocative

[uponit7771]

11. Just what Putin ordered