(Refiles to fix advisory. Recasts with reported meeting by USFK commander and adds details from presidential aide briefing)<\/p>\n
By Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok Shim<\/p>\n
SEOUL, Aug 18 (Reuters) – U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Xavier Brunson visited \u200cSouth Korea’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday to discuss plans to scale back the joint Ulchi Freedom Shield military \u200cexercise, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
The ministry and USFK did not immediately comment, but the reports came after U.S. President Donald Trump instructed the Pentagon \u200bto “substantially reduce” the drills, and said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had responded to his outreach.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for stronger independent defence capabilities, while saying annual civil-defence exercises held alongside the joint military drills were defensive and not intended to threaten North Korea.<\/p>\n
Lee said Seoul should proceed without disruption with the planned transfer of wartime operational \u200ccontrol from the United States during his \u2060term, in line with the government’s existing plan.<\/p>\n
“A strong alliance makes the foundation of security stronger, and strengthening our own capabilities increases our value and necessity as an ally,” Lee said \u2060in a cabinet meeting, describing the U.S.-South Korea alliance and independent defence as mutually reinforcing.<\/p>\n
Lee said maintaining peace was the government’s top priority, but South Korea also needed to prepare for a “worst-case scenario,” underscoring the need for stronger military capabilities of its own.<\/p>\n
He \u200balso called \u200bfor faster progress on South Korea’s nuclear-powered submarine programme and \u200bfor developing officers capable of integrated operations, as \u200cdistinctions between battlefields become less clear.<\/p>\n
U.S.-NORTH KOREA DIALOGUE<\/p>\n
At a National Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Lee said the civil-defence exercises held alongside major U.S.-South Korea military drills were defensive in character.<\/p>\n
South Korea had no intention of using the exercises to attack North Korea or raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Lee said, adding that their purpose was to protect citizens’ daily lives rather than target any particular party as an enemy, according to a statement by the presidential Blue House.<\/p>\n
In a \u200cseparate briefing on Tuesday, South Korea’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said \u200bSeoul hoped Trump’s message would help revive dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
“We \u200bhope the friendly relationship between the U.S. and \u200bNorth Korean leaders will lead to meaningful North Korea-U.S. dialogue,” Wi told reporters.<\/p>\n
Such engagement, he said, \u200ccould bring tangible progress toward peace and stability \u200bon the Korean Peninsula and \u200bhelp restart broader discussions.<\/p>\n
Discussions over the joint military exercises come ahead of a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to South Korea on Wednesday and Thursday for talks expected to cover developments on the Korean Peninsula \u200band regional security issues.<\/p>\n
The presidential office \u200chas also said it would continue coordinating closely with Washington on the allies’ combined defence posture and \u200bmilitary exercises.<\/p>\n
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises began on Monday and are scheduled to run through August \u200b27.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok ShimEditing by Ed Davies)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Refiles to fix advisory. Recasts with reported meeting by USFK commander and adds details from presidential aide briefing)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16675,31,146,15004,34,2642,64211,33,9459,28306,3377],"class_list":["post-124028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-defence-ministry","tag-korea","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-military-exercise","tag-north-korea","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-presidential-aide","tag-south-korea","tag-south-korean-president","tag-u-s-forces-korea","tag-usfk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}