S. Korea, US should resume joint drills: Ex-US commander

S. Korea, US should resume joint drills: Ex-US commander

By Choi Si-young

Published : Jun 19, 2020 - 16:08       Updated : Jun 19, 2020 - 16:40

Retired General Vincent Brooks

 

South Korea and the United States should resume large-scale joint military exercises to make North Korea agitated and realize it is overstepping, said Vincent Brooks, who headed the 28,500-strong combined forces command between Seoul and Washington.

“Now is a good time to say we’re going to go through with the exercise here in late summer,” Brooks said Wednesday, two days after the North demolished an inter-Korean liaison office amid escalating tensions on the peninsula prompted by the contentious anti-Pyongyang leaflets defectors flew there from Seoul.

The North warned of deploying troops to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as well as to the joint factory complex and Kumgangsan resort facilities, all of which are near the border.

“The exercises would no longer be a matter that we want to discuss with North Korea -- simply not going to be a matter they’re going to have any influence over hereafter,” Brooks added during an online forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told The Korea Herald he fully supported moves to “reinitiate full-scale combined exercises” in a “strategic strangulation campaign” against Pyongyang.

He served on the combined forces command and co-authored plans on Pyongyang’s instability and collapse.

Meanwhile other analysts advised Seoul to follow a more cautious approach.

Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told the Voice of America: “My advice is to not take the bait. As long as Kim stays on his side of the DMZ and is not shooting, ignore them. I see no benefit to either the US and ROK in responding,” using South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.

(미끼를 물다-take the bait)

“While I favor resoluteness, I don’t favor going into the DMZ ourselves right now,” said Michael O’Hanlon, another senior fellow at the Brookings Institute.(나는 결단력을 선호하지만 지금 당장 우리 자신이 DMZ로 들어사는 것은 바람직 하지 않다고 생각합니다)

The analyst said Washington should resurrect diplomacy with a “realistic strategy” so a nuclear-armed Pyongyang understands what to expect from a successful deal.(미국은 핵 보유국인 북한이 성공적인 협상에서 무엇을 기대해야 할지를 이해할 수 있도록 "현실적 전략"으로 외교를 부활시켜야 합니다.)

Experts were divided over when the tensions on the peninsula would subside, with some saying Seoul’s surrender to Pyongyang’s demands would most likely bring them down.(전문가들은 한반도의 긴장이 언제 가라앉을지를 두고 의견이 분분했는데, 일부에서는 남한이 북한의 요구에 굴복하면 한반도 긴장이 낮아질 것이라고 말했습니다)

“I really hope that is not what the South decides to do,” Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at RAND Corp., told The Korea Herald.("저는 정말 그것이 남한이 하기로 결정한 것이 아니기를 바랍니다.")

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)