SEOUL ¨C The U.S. and South Korea have spent almost seven decades honing their preparedness for war. Now fears are growing among the alliance¡¯s proponents that extended peace talks are eroding that advantage.
Defense chiefs from the two nations will gather for an annual meeting in Washington on Wednesday facing a radically changed landscape after President Donald Trump¡¯s decision to restart nuclear negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. While those discussions put off the prospect of a conflict, Trump has also canceled major military exercises to facilitate the detente.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo, must now find a way to maintain a robust defense without providing regular, real-world simulations for troops that tend to rotate through every couple of years. Trump¡¯s statements calling the exercises ¡°war games¡± and echoing Kim by calling them ¡°provocative¡± makes them harder to restart as long as nuclear talks drag on.
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