US-ROK Major Command Post Exercise Likely to Be Cancelled
|It looks like what was once called UFG will not happen again this year:
South Korea and the United States appear increasingly likely to scale back or even call off a major combined exercise again due to the new coronavirus, after indefinitely postponing their annual springtime drill earlier this year, sources said Saturday.
The repeated skipping of annual exercises, if realized, is feared to affect the joint combat posture between the two countries, as well as South Korea’s planned takeover of the wartime operational control (OPCON) of its forces from the U.S.
“Both sides share the need to stage the summertime exercise as planned, and we’ve continued consultations on the matter. But things are highly flexible due to the COVID-19 situation,” a defense ministry official said.
Seoul and Washington usually carry out major combined exercises twice a year — in around March and August. But they postponed this year’s springtime exercise due to COVID-19, and it has not been held to date, as the health crisis continues.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but basically it comes down to not being able to logistically test and quarantine the thousands of servicemembers who would come to Korea for the exercise.
This wlll come as a surprise to USFK…
FS: Yep.
And Emperor Xi smiled…
Fatty just got paid.
US preparing to withdraw.
Then Korean stock market tanks like 1997 all over again.