Tensions rise on Korean peninsula as US announces major war games, Kim Jong Un orders increase in munitions production
Jamie McIntyre
‘WAR GAMES’ ARE BACK: U.S. Forces Korea announced today that the annual major military U.S.-South Korea joint exercise “Ulchi Freedom Shield” will begin a week from today and run through the end of the month.
The annual military drills, named for a famous Korean general, were scaled back during the Trump administration in an effort to appease North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has consistently denounced the annual exercises as “war games” that are a “rehearsal for an invasion of the North.” The U.S. command insists the exercises, which will include thousands of South Korean and American troops as well as forces from 10 other nations, are purely defensive in nature.
“The annual exercise is designed to strengthen the combined defense posture and alliance response capabilities based on scenarios that reflect diverse threats within the security environment,” U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. “[South Korean] and U.S. units will conduct a number of complementary large-scale, combined training events to strengthen interoperability. The training will increase combat readiness, as well as strengthen the security and stability on the Korean peninsula and across Northeast Asia.”
KIM ORDERS RAMP UP: The announcement of the 11 days of military drills comes as Kim toured a factory producing tactical missiles and ordered a speed-up of production to prepare his country for war.
“He set forth an important goal to drastically boost the existing missile production capacity,” according to an account in the state-run Korean Central News Agency. “The qualitative level of war preparations depends on the development of the munitions industry,” Kim said, “appealing the factory to bring about a surge in production for war preparations.”
Kim reportedly focused on a shortage of mobile launch systems known as TELs, for “transporter erector launcher,” which allow missiles to be moved around to avoid detection.
“TEL production presents itself as the primary problem in view of the development of the national defense,” the KCNA report said. Kim reportedly “underlined the need to go all out” to produce “more modern and highly efficient TELs substantially conducive to the army’s perfect war preparations.”
Kim has spent several days this month touring factories that make armored vehicles, artillery shells, and other munitions, in each case ordering a surge in production.
‘GIRDING FOR WAR’: The orders follow a meeting last week of the North Korean Central Military Commission, which was called “to discuss an important issue of making the army more thoroughly gird for a war given the grave political and military situation prevailing in the Korean peninsula,” according to another KCNA report.
“The present situation, in which the hostile forces are getting ever more undisguised in their reckless military confrontation with the DPRK, requires the latter’s army to have more positive, proactive and overwhelming will and thoroughgoing and perfect military readiness for a war,” the report said.
At the meeting, Kim reportedly called for “securing more powerful strike means for carrying out the mission of war deterrence,” and for “actively conducting actual war drills.”
Since the beginning of last year, North Korea has conducted more than 100 missile tests, and the U.S. is bracing for more during this month’s U.S.-South Korean exercise.
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HAPPENING TODAY: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will provide remarks at this morning’s “relinquishment of office” ceremony for Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday. The 10 a.m. event will be another chance for Austin to underscore the effect that Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) hold on more than 300 military promotions is having on readiness.
Tuberville’s refusal to lift the holds in his fight with the Pentagon over its abortion travel policies, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) insistence that individual floor votes for each of the nominees is impractical, has created a ripple effect that is affecting thousands of military officers, if you count all the people frozen in place, along with their families.
That includes, according to the Washington Post, Redstone Arsenal, in Tuberville’s home state of Alabama. Maj. Gen. Heath Collins is supposed to be leaving to take on a new assignment heading the Missile Defense Agency. But Collins’s promotion is among those on hold, forcing a rear admiral normally stationed at Redstone to fill in,” the newspaper reported. “Meanwhile, the brigadier general tapped to replace Collins is also stuck, forced to extend his assignment at Space Systems Command in Los Angeles rather than starting work in Huntsville.”
The ripple effect is creating disruptions up and down the chain of command. In the case of Gilday, his job will be filled on an acting basis by Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who is nominated to be the first female CNO and the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
‘TACTICALLY SIGNIFICANT ADVANCES’: Over the weekend, Ukraine was reported to have made progress advancing along two fronts in the south, in some cases taking advantage of Russian troop rotations to push through Russian defenses. “Russian commanders face a dilemma of whether to strengthen this area or to deploy troops in the areas of Ukraine’s main counter-offensive operations, farther to the east,” said the British Defense Ministry in a post.
“Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least two sectors of the front on August 12 and reportedly made tactically significant advances along the administrative border between Zaporizhia and Donetsk oblasts,” the Institute for the Study of War reported Saturday.
Russian “mil bloggers” are “seizing on Ukrainian gains in Urozhaine to highlight poor Russian morale and command challenges in the area,” the ISW reported yesterday.
On Saturday, Ukraine launched another attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting occupied Crimea with Russia. Social media posts showed the bridge shrouded in smoke, but Russia claimed that it was a smoke screen designed to thwart the attack. It claimed to have shot down three Ukrainian ground attack missiles fired from S-200 systems and said the bridge was undamaged.
ZELENSKY FIRES TOP RECRUITERS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the heads of Ukraine’s regional-military committees as he attempts to show the world he will not tolerate corruption in his government.
“Corruption in military recruiting will be eliminated,” Zelensky posted on X Friday. “The heads of all regional recruitment centers will be fired and replaced by brave warriors who have lost their health on the frontlines but have maintained their dignity.”
The military officials are accused of taking cash and cryptocurrency bribes or helping people eligible to be called up to fight to flee Ukraine. “This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is high treason,” Zelensky said.
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Calendar
MONDAY | APRIL 14
9:30 a.m. 14th and F Sts. NW — National Press Club event: “Why Are They Not Home? Challenges Faced By U.S. Government in Resolving Journalist Hostage Cases,” marking the 11th anniversary of the abduction of journalist Austin Tice https://www.press.org/events/why-are-they-not-home
10 a.m. U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivers remarks at the relinquishment of office ceremony for Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday www.dvidshub.net/webcast/32503
2:30 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies conference call press briefing: “Previewing the Camp David Trilateral Summit,” with Victor Cha, CSIS senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair; Christopher Johnstone, CSIS senior adviser and Japan chair; Emily Benson, director of the CSIS Project on Trade and Technology; and Ellen Kim, CSIS deputy director and Korea chair senior fellow https://www.csis.org/events/press-briefing-previewing-camp-david-trilateral-summit
7 p.m. 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW — Politics and Prose Bookstore book discussion: “The War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine,” with author Christopher Miller, reporter at Financial Times https://www.politics-prose.com/christopher-miller
TUESDAY | AUGUST 15
8 a.m. 2401 M St., NW — George Washington University Project for Media and National Security Defense Writers Group conversation with Bob Hale and Ellen Lord, chairman and vice chair Congressional Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform. RSVP: Thom Shanker at [email protected]
8 a.m. 2941 Fairview Park Dr., Falls Church, Virginia — ExecutiveBiz Hypersonics Forum: “Challenges, priorities, strategies and successes steering the technology in the U.S.,” with James Weber, principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Defense Undersecretary for Research and Development https://events.executivebiz.com/event/ebiz
11 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE — Heritage Foundation discussion: “China’s Future Naval Bases: New Empirical Data Points to Likely Places,” with Alexander Wooley, director of partnerships and communications at AidData; Thomas Spoehr, director of the Heritage Center for National Defense; and Brent Sadler, senior research fellow at the Heritage Center for National Defense https://www.heritage.org/asia/event/chinas-future-naval-bases
11 a.m. — Wilson Center Asia Program and Middle East Program virtual discussion: “Assessing Taliban-Led Afghanistan, Two Years On,” with former Afghani Education Minister Mirwais Balkhi, fellow at the Wilson Center; former Afghani Public Health Minister Suraya Dalil, director of the World Health Organization’s Special Programme on Primary Health Care; Nader Nadery, associate fellow at the Asser Institute; and Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/assessing-taliban
3 p.m. — Jewish Institute for National Security of America policy webinar: “Possible Marines Deployment to Counter Iran Maritime Aggression,” with retired Vice Adm. Mark Fox, former deputy commander, U.S. Central Command; retired Marine Lt. Gen. Dave Beydler, former commander, Marine Forces Central Command; and Ari Cicurel, JINSA assistant director of foreign policy https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register
WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 16
3 p.m. — Air and Space Forces Association and the U.S. Air Force virtual discussion: “The next phase of the Blended Wing Body aircraft prototype project,” with Ravi Chaudhary, assistant Air Force secretary for energy, installations, and environment; Maj. Gen. Albert Miller, director of strategy, plans, requirements, and programs at the Air Mobility Command Headquarters; and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright, president and CEO of the Air & Space Forces Association https://afa-org.zoom.us/webinar/register
12 p.m. — RAND Corporation virtual discussion: “Addressing Violent Extremism in the United States,” with Ryan Andrew Brown, RAND senior behavioral/social scientist; and Todd Helmus, RAND senior behavioral scientist https://www.rand.org/events/2023/08/policy-lab
THURSDAY | AUGUST 17
8 a.m. 4301 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Virginia — Intelligence and National Security Alliance discussion: “Open Source: Art of the Possible for National Security,” with Chris Rasmussen, founder and program manager at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Tearline Project; Mason Clark, senior analyst at the Institute for the Study of War; Matthew Daggett, technical staff member at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems group; Sam Gordy, president of Janes U.S.; and retired Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, CEO of Ashley Global Leadership and Security and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency https://www.insaonline.org/detail-pages/event
2 p.m. — The Hill virtual discussion: “We Are Not Alone; UFOs & National Security,” with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN).; Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL); Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL); and Greg Eghigian, professor of history and bioethics at Pennsylvania State University https://thehill.com/events/4141299-we-are-not-alone-ufos-national-security
WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 30
10:30 a.m. — 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W. — Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy and Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in-person and virtual event: “How much money for defense is enough?” with Michael O’Hanlon, director, Talbott Center; Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute; and Travis Sharp, senior fellow and director of defense budget studies, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments https://connect.brookings.edu/register-to-watch-how-much-money-for-defense
QUOTE OF THE DAY “We constantly hear from our Western partners that they will be with us for as long as it takes. But the word ‘long’ is not the word we should use. We should use the word ‘faster.’” Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, in an interview last week.