Joint Exercise Execution Will Be Tied to 2nd Kim-Trump Summit
As I guessed would happen, the fate of upcoming exercises will be tied to any upcoming summit between Kim Jong-un and President Trump. It makes too much sense to use these exercises as bartering chips if needed:
Seoul and Washington will make a decision on whether to conduct its annual Foal Eagle joint military exercise scheduled for next spring taking into consideration a potential second North Korea-U.S. summit, according to multiple military sources Thursday.
“The United States is paying great attention to advancing North-U.S. relations,” a South Korean government source said. “Our military and government is also responding to the U.S. stance and having discussions taking into consideration the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.”
U.S. President Donald Trump recently said that he is planning to hold his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in January or February, making the suspension of the South-U.S. drill more likely.
Another government source here said, “What it means to make a decision to hold the drills linking it to the North-U.S. summit is that, in the case that North Korea does not come to the negotiating table, the Foal Eagle may be conducted.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
