In view of the reduction and renaming of the traditional spring large scale US-ROK joint military exercises Key Resolve, and Foal Eagle, the US has invited Korean marine forces to participate in RIMPAC amphibious exercises and also invited South Korea to play a role in the Joint US Australian Talisman Sabre exercise. The new name for the reduced springtime exercises was Tong Maeng (alliance). The perspectives at the meeting early this week between the US acting Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, and the Korean Defense Minister, Jeong Kyeong-doo differed somewhat. The Korean side seemed focused on demonstrating in the necessary processes earlier agreed, the qualifications necessary for the transfer of operational wartime control of the Combined Forces Command from the United States to the South Korean military command. Tong Maeng provided the earliest opportunity to begin this process. On the other hand, the US is focused on the joint military exercises necessary to demonstrate the strength of the mutual commitments of the two allies by maintaining and improving operational readiness and military cooperation.
Public invitations by Commander, US Marine Corps Pacific, Lt. Gen. Lewis A. Craparotta, to the South Korean government to participate in RIMPAC and Talisman Sabre out of area joint military exercises, are viewed as ammunition to conservative elements in South Korea who question democratic party President Moon Jae In's commitment to the US Korean alliance and whether that commitment is somehow faltering in the face of his inititives toward North Korea. Those initiatives, among others, included the military agreements affecting military operations in and near the DMZ and Northern Limit Lines and also seeking sanctions waivers for joint North South economic projects. Among other measures tacitly agreed by the allies in the course of negotiations with North Korea related to denuclearization issues were the removal of so called "strategic assets" of the United States Armed Forces from the immediate vicinity of the Korean peninsula and the suspension or reduction of major joint military exercises during the pendency of US- North Korean denuclearization negotiations. The fate of major joint air exercises such as the upcoming Max Thunder seem uncertain at this point. One of the Top Ten analysts stated that the scale of Max Thunder would be reduced and the name would be changed. The RIMPAC and Talisman Sabre exercises represent an opportunity for South Korean forces to operate with US and other allied forces, in regions further from the Korean peninsula and should pose less of an arguable provocation to North Korea.
Nevertheless recently publicized comments in the Min Jok Kiri publication in North Korea, apparently questioned the recent US military operations in South Korea during the month of March which included combined exercises using the topography of South Korea, with its characteristic mountain and valley formations, to simulate what Sin In Kyun described in his program yesterday as "decapitation" operations. These operations allegedly simulating attacks on North Korea targets such as Yongbyun, or other nuclear targets, or command and control elements in Pyongyang. The exercise objective according to Shin was to increase proficiency in attacking North Korea, and to "send a message." Shin claimed he gained this understanding at a seminar in which Lt. Gen Craparotta, made a presentation associated with the 70th Anniversay of the foundation of the ROK Marine Corps. The air exercise in March actually involved a limited amount of various helicopters and Osprey aircraft (14 total and an estimated 400 personnel) and perhaps one C-130 aircraft using terrain following incursion tactics according to Shin. The North Korean MinJok Kiri commentary mocked the nature of reduced operations as "three penny" yet at the same time criticized the wisdom of such joint military exercises which nevertheless threaten, according to them, the progress in the lessening of military tensions on the peninsula.
Channel A News analysts today speculated that perhaps Moon Jae In would try to link further joint ROK military exercise cooperation with the US Indo-Pacific Command to US concessions to the South Korean desire to have some level of economic cooperation initiatives proceed with exemptions from US/UN sanctions on North Korea. This of course is directly tied to the US-ROK differences over the so called "small deal- big deal" dispute in the negotiating approach taken by the US to North Korea at Hanoi. The "small deal- big deal" phrase is used as short hand for the fundamental difference in views between the Moon administration and the US on the proper procedural approach to negotiating with North Korea, namely, the all or nothing approach favored by the hardliners like John Bolton in the US, revealed in full play at Hanoi, or the step by step, phased approach to build trust between the parties with mutual simultaneous concessions. One analyst on the program suggested President Moon hoped that a "medium deal," could be brokered.
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