Even as South Korea Looks Set To Move Leftward, Top American General Assures That War Games Will Go On

SEOUL — The Pentagon can rest easy, as American and South Korean forces will be roaring up and down South Korea’s craggy training grounds while warplanes zip overhead and warships blast imaginary targets at sea during their annual war games in August.The commander of America’s 28,500 troops in South Korea, General Xavier Brunson, made that clear when this reporter asked if the prospect of a leftist, supported by anti-American activists, winning Tuesday’s election as Korea’s president would bring about a cancellation of the exercises.“We are preparing to exercise again,” General Brunson responded during a Zoom meeting staged by the Institute for Corean-American Studies. (The Philadelphia group spells Korea with a “C,” as European visitors spelled it in the 19th century.) “We are trying to ensure we can manage crisis. The intent is to forestall conflict.” On his agenda for the day, he said, were meetings with Korean commanders at which details of the exercises would be discussed. No one, he stressed, had hinted at canceling them. Nor, he said, had he heard a thing about a report that Washington was thinking of reducing the number of troops in Korea.General Brunson’s remarks may not have removed concerns among the American brass that the leftist candidate for president, Lee Jae-myung, will want to loosen the tight bond with Washington that South Korea’s latest conservative president, Yoon Suk-yeol, formed during his three years in office before he was impeached and ousted after attempting to impose martial law on December 3. The impression, though, is that Mr. Lee, leader of the Minju, or Democratic Party, in his path to power from city mayor to provincial governor, has been more a political opportunist than a leftist ideologue. Mired in corruption scandals, he stands to avoid a number of the charges he is facing if he wins the election. In any case, Mr. Lee is not expected to revert to the policies of the previous Minju president, Moon Jae-in, the leftist who canceled American-Korean war games, other than computerized exercises, while in office between 2017 and 2022 before losing by an eyelash to Mr. Yoon.The odds-on favorite to defeat the candidate of Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party, Kim Moon-soo, Mr. Lee is spreading the word that, if anything, he may improve Washington’s ties with Seoul.Mr. Lee “aims to restore the ROK-U.S. alliance and deepen the trust,” one of Mr. Lee’s closest advisers, Wi Sung-lac, a former ambassador to Moscow who also served in top posts in Korea’s embassy in Washington, said, referring to the Republic of Korea. “Close cooperation with our allies is needed.”Mr. Wi qualified those diplomatic words, though, by stressing “the need to maintain amicable relations with countries of the region,” notably Communist China. “Confrontation between the U.S. and China is one of the elements,” he said in a talk at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club. “We believe we can improve.”Given the nuclear and missile threats posed by North Korea, he went on, “there is no reason” for South Korea, China, and America “not to cooperate.” All three, he said, “can work together.” Assuming Mr. Lee does win on Tuesday, Mr. Wi suggested that he should engage in “a summit-level phone conversation” with President Trump, after which he said the two should meet in person. “The first order of business is a summit,” Mr. Wi said. “We would have to have a working-level meeting.” Aside from the Korean-American alliance, “negotiations” on high tariffs Mr. Trump is imposing would be “one of the most pressing issues.” But what about those joint military exercises? “As a matter of principle, we will maintain the ROK-US exercises, for the combined defense ability of Korea,” Mr. Wi responded. General Brunson, when pressed on the need for war games, was more emphatic. Joint exercises, he said, are “basic” to “our ability to be operational” — “to be able to work together.” He said he was confident “the ROK government understands the importance of our alliance.” Regardless of the rise of a new president in South Korea, “We are going to continue to exercise.”

Even as South Korea Looks Set To Move Leftward, Top American General Assures That War Games Will Go On

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