North Korea’s rare signal for dialogue with the United States is drawing attention away from the upcoming joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington.
Before Pyongyang expressed its strong willingness to hold a summit with Seoul, all public and military attention was directed at how and when the allies would hold the annual drills, as they have been one of the biggest reasons for the North’s provocations that have raised tension on the Korean Peninsula each year.
But with the North extending a peace gesture to the U.S., South Korea is showing signs of wanting to hold toned-down exercises, in an apparent move to stop provoking the North and build sustainably peaceful inter-Korean relations. The exercises were delayed until after the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said last week the North will not push ahead with military provocations because of the drills. He said this is because Seoul and Washington are likely to reach consensus on downsizing the exercises amid the thawing inter-Korean relations.
In a recent meeting with United States Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift, South Korea’s Defense Minister Song Young-moo also said the U.S. does not have to deploy strategic weapons during the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills slated to begin at the end of this month or early April.
The ongoing mood to scale down the drills is in contrast to an earlier hard-line stance from the U.S., which stuck to “no compromise” position of tightening military readiness on the peninsula.
Some reports said that the defense ministry requested the U.S. to keep the upcoming exercises low-key in consideration of the ongoing peace momentum on the peninsula.
“We are still in talks with the U.S. on the issue,” defense ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said in a media briefing, Thursday. “But we did not deliver the intention (to the U.S.) publicly.”
The ministry has yet to make public detailed schedules for the joint exercises, and plans to unveil them sometime next week.
Earlier this year, Seoul and Washington agreed to delay the drills, which normally take place at the end of February to early March, until after the closing of the Paralympics which ends on Sunday, as they reached consensus over evading possible military threats during the sports events.
The North, for its part, also joined the peace move by sending hundreds of sports and high-level delegates to the Games. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, via his sister, sent a letter to invite President Moon Jae-in for a summit in Pyongyang, and the two Koreas later agreed to hold it at Panmunjeom in late April.
President Moon has since played a role as a peace-mediator between the U.S. and the North by sending his special envoys to Pyongyang who met Kim and delivered his message for dialogue with U.S. President Donald Trump over denuclearization, an offer which Trump accepted. A specific timetable for the historic meeting of the two sides has yet to be decided, but Trump said he wants to meet with Kim by May.
