US, South Korean defense ministers pledge military training amid threat from North Korea
Mike Brest
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Defense leaders from the United States and South Korea committed to enhancing their joint military training amid a growing threat from North Korea.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup in Seoul on Tuesday for the fourth time and their first since the beginning of 2023. The two leaders, in a joint statement, “strongly condemned the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) continued provocations and violations of United National Security Council resolutions, including its missile launches and recent drone incursions.”
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Austin’s trip to the Indo-Pacific comes as the department seeks to strengthen its ties in the region in the face of North Korea’s continued aggression, launching an unprecedented number of missiles last year, including some capable of hitting the U.S., and to combat the rising threat from China.
“The two leaders also pledged to further expand and bolster the level and scale of this year’s combined exercises and training,” the statement continued. “To this end, the two leaders concurred on the need to take into account changes in the security environment, including the DPRK’s recent steps with respect to its nuclear and missile programs, to strengthen combined exercises and training, including the upcoming combined bilateral exercises. Both leaders agreed to expand the scope and scale of combined field training exercises and to conduct a large-scale combined joint fires demonstration this year.”
The two sides will hold tabletop exercises next month to prepare a response for a possible North Korean nuclear strike.
Earlier this month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, whom Austin is expected to meet with on his trip, spoke with President Joe Biden on the same topic: North Korea’s increasingly provocative behavior.
“President Biden and President Yoon tasked their teams to plan for an effective, coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea. And so that is what the teams are working on,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing on Jan. 3.
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In late December, a week before the two presidents’ meeting, the South Korean military failed to shoot down a group of North Korean drones that crossed the border for the first time in five years. While they scrambled warplanes and attack helicopters, the military was not able to shoot down any of the drones.