The U.S. and South Korea have been conducting bilateral exercise for over 40 years.
While stationed on Okinawa in the 1980’s we saw the year started off with a Bear Hunt Exercise which was primarily and artillery shoot up near the DMZ. Then later the Team Spirit Exercise on the East Coast of South Korea was an amphibious landing with a full Marine Expeditionary Brigade and Navy strike group with all Marine supporting arms – ground and air.
Cannot understand all the press that seems to think we are just starting these kinds of exercise.
According to some news media we are sending a “clear message of deterrence to North Korea” with soon-to-be approved plans for a series of military exercises in nearby waters.”
Again, according to news articles the naval and air exercises, planned for the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, have yet to be approved by the two countries, and details are not yet available according to Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
Morrell went on to say that despite the concerns that such training could raise concerns in North Korea and China, “This is a matter of our ability to exercise in the open seas, in international waters. Those determinations are made by us, and us alone — where we exercise, when we exercise, with whom and how, using what assets, and so forth.”
I guess we see a new regime with no institutional memory. Or is it: look how brave we are standing up to the North Koreans?
