Tag: Key Resolve

It looks like the upcoming Key Resolve exercise will be delayed if North Korea does not cause any more provocations:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed Thursday to delay their countries’ regular joint military exercises during the Winter Olympic Games to be held here next month.

The agreement came in a telephone conversation between the two leaders, according to the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

The tentative agreement came at a request from the South Korean leader.

“I believe it would greatly help ensure the success of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games if you could express an intention to delay joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises during the Olympics in case the North does not make any more provocations,” Moon was quoted as telling Trump.

The U.S. president agreed, saying Moon may tell North Korea that there will be no military exercises during the Olympics, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

In a press release, the White House confirmed the leaders agreed to “de-conflict the Olympics and our military exercises so that United States and Republic of Korea forces can focus on ensuring the security of the Games.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the Olympics are in February and the Key Resolve exercise is typically executed in March so it was not like both events were overlapping.  However, preparations and personnel movements do happen in February and a shift of Key Resolve will provide the ROK military more time to focus on Olympic security before executing the exercise.

I guess the big question becomes what happens if North Korea commits a provocation like a missile test? Does Key Resolve get executed at the original time?  I would not be surprised if North Korea does a more ambiguous provocation like a space launch just to create tension in the US-ROK alliance over what to do in response.

Here is the latest on the idea floated by President Moon to delay the annual Key Resolve military exercise:

South Korea and the United States may delay their joint military exercises only for the duration of the Winter Olympic Games to be held here next year and if the North halts its military provocations, a ranking South Korean official said Wednesday.

The remarks came one day after South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in an interview with U.S. broadcaster NBC he has proposed delaying the military drills, which North Korea accuses of a war rehearsal, as part of efforts to reduce tensions during the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

Such a proposal, however, “is limited to holding the Olympic Games peacefully,” an official from the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, while speaking on condition of anonymity.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but Key Resolve is typically executed every March.  Whatever the delay is cannot be too long because of the summer change over of personnel in USFK that begins in June plus the next military exercise UFG 2018 is typically executed each August.

Here is what USFK’s position on the delay is:

The United States forces stationed in South Korea said Wednesday it is committed to the two countries’ decision on whether to delay their annual military drills and announce their final decision in an appropriate time.

“We want the PyeongChang Olympics to be successful and have committed to our ally that we will aid their success,” the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) said in a short press release. The CFC is led by Vincent Brooks, the commanding general of the U.S. Forces Korea.  [Yonhap]

I guess we will see what happens in the coming months.

I guess we will see where this leads, but Key Resolve is the joint military exercise that typically happens every March which would be the month after the Pyeongchang Olympics held in February 2018:

South Korea and the United States may consider postponing their joint military exercise as part of efforts to reduce tension and invite North Korea to the Winter Olympic Games to be held in South Korea, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday.

Moon, however, said the move really depends on the way North Korea behaves.

“It is possible for South Korea and the U.S. to review the possibility of postponing the exercises. I have made such a suggestion to the U.S. and the U.S is currently reviewing it. However, all this depends on how North Korea behaves,” he said in an interview with U.S. broadcaster NBC on Tuesday (local time).  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

A U.S. strategic B-1B bomber engages in a joint drill with South Korea fighter jets on March 22, 2017, over the Korean Peninsula. The drill was part of the annual military maneuvers between the two countries, which has been boosted this year with the backdrop of North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile provocations and an expected hard-line policy by the U.S. (Photo provided by South Korean Air Force) (Yonhap)

KBS is reporting that the highly controversial THAAD battery will be part of the simulated portion of March’s Key Resolve exercise between the US and ROK militaries:

Anchor: South Korea and the U.S. will stage a simulation of THAAD missile interception during the annual Key Resolve military exercise next month. The allied forces are also expected to see the participation of strategic assets such as the B-1B and B-52 strategic bombers.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: South Korea and the U.S. are said to be planning to apply the “4D” operational concept in their annual Key Resolve military exercise next month.

During the Security Consultative Meeting in 2015, defense chiefs of South Korea and the U.S. approved the 4D operational concept, to ‘detect, disrupt, destroy and defend’ against North Korean nuclear and biochemical missile threats.

While initializing the preventive and preemptive strike drill, the allied forces
will stage a simulation drill to shoot down an incoming North Korean missile with a THAAD battery.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

Another year with an upcoming Key Resolve exercise means once again more threats from North Korea:

North Korea issued a threat Wednesday that the upcoming annual joint military drills between South Korea and the United States will result in a catastrophic outcome as the U.S. defense secretary is set to travel to Seoul this week to discuss ways to reinforce the alliance against the North.

“The problem is the South Korean government, in defiance of the atmosphere, is already making a fuss about taking the path to push ahead with Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises in March and bring in again U.S. nuclear strategic assets,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in its statement carried by the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.

“It’s needless to say what catastrophic outcome could result when such nuclear war rehearsals take place in front of us at a time our strategic status has changed,” the statement said, suggesting the country’s possession of own nuclear weapons.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans have been quiet recently so I would not be surprised if they do a missile test or some other provocation during the Key Resolve timeframe.

This year’s Key Resolve exercise will have a little twist with the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff leading it:

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff will lead a combined military exercise with the U.S. from a new command center in March amid growing threats from North Korea, military officials said Monday.

“During the upcoming Key Resolve exercise, Seoul’s JCS will be responsible for exercise planning and control, operation of opposing forces, and after-drill meetings,” an official at the defense ministry said.

The exercise’s command center will be set up in an underground bunker of South Korea’s Capital Defense Command, as the JCS will lead the annual exercise with the U.S. staff playing a supporting role, according to the ministry.

When the U.S. side led the exercise, the command center used to be set up at the bunker of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.

The JCS led the Key Resolve drills in 2013 as South Korea was scheduled to regain wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington in 2015. But the OPCON transfer was pushed back amid Pyongyang’s provocations. Seoul and Washington agreed on the “conditions-based” transfer, which observers say could come in mid-2020s.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes this article stating that US and ROK forces are possibly exercising beheading strikes against the Kim regime during the current Foal Eagle/Key Resolve exercise:

Massive joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises are a spring ritual on the Korean Peninsula guaranteed to draw a lot of threat-laced venom from Pyongyang. This time, not only are the war games the biggest ever, but the troops now massed south of the Demilitarized Zone have reportedly incorporated a new hypothetical into their training: a “beheading mission” against Kim Jong Un himself.

It’s the kind of option military planners tend to consider but almost never use. Neither the U.S. military nor South Korea’s defense ministry has actually said it is part of the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle exercises that began this week and will go on for about two months.

But Pyongyang, already feeling the squeeze of new sanctions over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch, is taking a plethora of “beheading mission” reports from the South Korean media very seriously. That goes a long way toward explaining why its own rhetoric has ratcheted up a decibel — even by its own standards of bellicosity. It could also explain some subtle rejiggering afoot in the North’s military strategy.  [Business Insider]

You can read the rest at the link.

Over the next few weeks there will be more military traffic and personnel in South Korea as part of the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises that begin this week:

South Korea and the United States will launch their largest-ever joint exercise this week to warn North Korea against further provocations, a South Korean military official said Sunday.

The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises running from Monday through April 30 will be the largest in scale since Pyongyang’s torpedo attack on the South Korean corvette Cheonan in 2010, which is what triggered these annual drills, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

This year’s exercise will involve more than 300,000 South Korean and 15,000 U.S. troops and simulate previously unattempted strategies.

The Key Resolve portion of the exercise will include OPLAN 5015, which aims to remove the North’s weapons of mass destruction and prepare the allied troops for a pre-emptive strike in the event of a North Korean attack.

“The OPLAN 5015 was included in the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise last year, but this is the first time for it to be carried out in a Key Resolve exercise,” another South Korean military official said.   [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the ROK and the US are looking to make a strong statement to North Korea on the status of the US-ROK alliance:

The annual Korea-U.S. joint exercises will be the largest ever in terms of both “quality and quantity,” Defense Minister Han Min-goo told Saenuri Party officials at the National Assembly on Thursday.

Twice as many U.S. troops and double the equipment as before, or about 15,000 U.S. troops and hardware like a combat aviation brigade, a Marine mobile brigade, an aircraft carrier fleet, a nuclear-powered submarine fleet, and aerial refueling tankers, will be participating in the drills dubbed “Key Resolve/Foal Eagle.”

On the Korean side, the troop numbers will be greater by half than usual at 290,000 personnel, including special operations forces, Army corps in the front-line areas, and Army divisions in the rear areas.

The exercises are aimed at ensuring that troop reinforcements from the mainland U.S. are integrated smoothly on the Korean Peninsula in an emergency.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.