[Editorial] Sustain readiness

Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of US Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command, stressed the importance of South Korea-US joint military exercises.

During a Zoom webinar on Friday, jointly organized by the Korea Defense Veterans Association and the Korea-US Alliance Foundation, Brunson said the combined South Korea-US drills are essential to defending the Korean Peninsula.

He argued that peace is preserved by the allies' ability to maintain readiness and that the joint exercises form the cornerstone of all their readiness. The continuation of the drills, especially the major ones in spring and summer, ensures that forces remain prepared and interoperable.

Brunson’s remarks appear to be a pointed response to recent suggestions by officials in Seoul that scaling back combined South Korea-US military drills could help revive dialogue with Pyongyang.

It is a striking contrast: South Korea relies heavily on the United States for its national security, yet some of its officials advocate reducing joint drills that Washington insists are essential.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young recently said that joint South Korea-US military exercises are a tool for achieving peace, not an end in themselves. He has consistently argued that joint exercises can be adjusted or postponed to encourage North Korea to return to dialogue.

To bolster his case, he points to the suspension of the “Team Spirit” drills in 1992 and 1994, and the delay of combined South Korea-US exercises in 2018, claiming these steps contributed to progress in nuclear negotiations and eased tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Yet the historical record undermines this claim. North Korea has never verifiably halted the advancement of its nuclear weapons program throughout decades of sanctions and pressure. It even legislated a policy of using nuclear weapons in an emergency. Many experts argue that negotiations and dialogue have largely afforded Pyongyang the time it needed to further develop its nuclear arsenal.

Sanctions and pressure against North Korea are largely neutralized by backing from China and Russia. Indeed, the threat posed by North Korea is expanding as it deepens military cooperation with Russia. Pyongyang has provided significant support for Moscow's war effort in Ukraine. In exchange, experts assess that Russia is transferring advanced military technology to Pyongyang.

Above all, commanders and soldiers from South Korea and the United States rotate regularly, making seamless cooperation difficult to sustain without continuous training. Suspending such training would erode real, hard-won military readiness.

Suspending joint training in advance of any concrete and verifiable move by North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal would dangerously weaken the alliance’s deterrent posture. The North will be encouraged to mount bolder military provocations.

Beyond deterrence, alliance credibility is also at stake. Decisions to suspend or postpone training must not be taken unilaterally. This could raise questions about the reliability of the US defense commitment to South Korea, and send misleading signals to Pyongyang that something has gone seriously wrong in the US alliance.

Kevin Kim, the acting US ambassador to South Korea, also emphasized the importance of joint drills after meeting with senior South Korean officials. He said, "I think the words that he (Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back) used were that military exercises are like the lifeline of a military, and that that's our expectation moving forward." He effectively spoke out against some Seoul officials' suggestion that combined exercises should be adjusted as a precondition for reopening dialogue with North Korea.

Brunson’s message is clear and convincing: Peace rests on sustained allied readiness. Peace without military strength behind it is merely a house of cards. Given North Korea’s strong backing from China and Russia, it is doubtful that Pyongyang would return to dialogue in exchange for scaling down combined South Korea-US military exercises.

Brunson said that the ability to engage in rigorous, realistic training is what separates the US-South Korea alliance from others. For Seoul to voluntarily relinquish such a hard-won advantage in the hope of coaxing Pyongyang back to dialogue would be a dangerous miscalculation.