The US and South Korea must stop threatening Kim Jong Un with war drills
Bilateral military drills should be suspended this year and officials should consider terminating them altogether
Cheehyung Harrison Kim March 7, 2021
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Image: 대한민국 국군 Republic of Korea Armed Forces (file photo)
The following article is an opinion piece by Cheehyung Harrison Kim, an associate professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a member of the Korea Peace Now Grassroots Network. Views expressed in opinion articles are exclusively the author’s own and do not represent those of NK News.
After over a year of standstill, the dialogue between the governments of North Korea and South Korea is on the verge of resumption. A joint South Korea-United States military exercise — which is set to begin in South Korea in the second week of March — is a serious impediment to this development.
The current political climate on the Korean Peninsula — as shaped by Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington — is delicate but conducive to the next level of diplomatic engagement, which would entail discussions of a peace agreement, another round of denuclearization, step-by-step lifting of sanctions and mutual exchange with North Korea based on cultural and humanitarian interests. If politics matter — if the military leaders of the two countries are committed to responding to real political currents (as they ought to be) — then the bilateral military drills should be suspended this year and considered for termination altogether.
The type of military exercises I am talking about are large-scale joint war simulations that have been held in South Korea close to the North Korean border, usually in the spring and fall, since 1955. The names of these exercises vary — “Counterblow,” “Max Thunder” and “Team Spirit” are just a few — but the premise has been the same: simulated warfare with North Korea.
These war games can get very large, with tens of thousands of military personnel from all branches using the latest weapons, including fighter jets, stealth bombers, missiles, gunships and drones. The beaches, mountains and fields of South Korea are assaulted and blown up in imagined warfare.
All the while, the United States military has command over the South Korean military, which is also the case in a real war. This year’s drill, simply known as a “command post exercise” (CPX), is supposedly computer-based, involving only a minimal number of troops.
Military drills on the Korean Peninsula can be very large in scope | Image: UNC – CFC – USFKNorth Korea, too, engages in regular war simulations that are just as large and menacing. One major difference is that North Korea is not doing this with another country, let alone a country seen as a military superpower with nuclear weapons.
When the media carries the news of North Korea’s latest firing of ballistic missiles, what is usually not reported is that missiles are also being fired from the South by two powerful militaries. With these war drills, Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington are all responsible for escalating hostility, but it is fair to say that Pyongyang feels more threatened.
Even if the large joint military exercises are canceled, there still will remain numerous small-scale training sessions throughout the year. In 2020, South Korea and the United States conducted 172 training drills. Although the numbers for the armies and the marines have gone down in recent years, the number of drills for the navies and the air forces have gone up dramatically, signaling the fact that political circumstances and the COVID-19 pandemic have only changed how the war games are conducted.
Canceling large-scale military exercises is a contribution toward peace and dialogue, but it does not mean that war training will stop entirely: Hundreds of smaller joint drills will still happen each year.
The Korean Peninsula is not alone in dealing with the issue of joint war games. The United States military, which has 800 bases overseas, engages in joint military exercises in every region of the planet. They include “Defender-Europe,” “African Lion,” “Juniper Cobra” (with Israel), “Talisman Saber” (with Australia), “UNITAS” (with South American countries), and “RIMPAC” (the largest maritime war game, based in Hawai‘i, with over twenty countries).
These military exercises are very unpopular. From Honolulu and Seoul to Germany and Okinawa, each drill has been met with protests by the general public. For example, in Germany, there’s “No to War – No to NATO,” which has been organizing protests against Defender-Europe exercises. In Hawai‘i, the Cancel RIMPAC Coalition sent Gov. David Ige a 12,000-signature petition against a naval drill in Aug. 2020.
This week, Veterans for Peace issued a statement with over 2,000 signatures to the Biden administration calling for the suspension of military exercises in South Korea. These organizations oppose the joint drills because they waste public funds, damage the environment and harm the civic life of democratic decision-making.
Suspending the military drills is ultimately about letting dialogue and the democratic process be the roadmap to changing the confrontational status quo on the Korean Peninsula. The pressing goals expressed by different actors from various political positions — a peace agreement, lifting sanctions and the travel ban, denuclearization, humanitarian and economic exchange and improving human rights — cannot be achieved without working with the North Korean state.
Furthermore, future interactions with North Korea’s civic groups, trade unions, enterprises and educational institutions will always be better served when governments are talking to each other.
Joint military practices can be important, but it is never more important than peaceful engagement.
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About the Author
Cheehyung Harrison Kim
Cheehyung Harrison Kim is an associate professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a member of the Korea Peace Now Grassroots Network.VIEW MORE ARTICLES BY CHEEHYUNG HARRISON KIM
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