US, South Korea bolster alliance for Indo-Pacific security

Asia-Pacific, News, US December 3, 2021 , by IRIA No Comments

U.S. and South Korea agree to update wartime plans amid North Korea threats

The U.S. and South Korea said they would update their joint wartime contingency plans in case of a war with North Korea amid an armed race triggered by Pyongyang’s recent weapons tests.

North Korea’s missile and weapons pursuits are “increasingly destabilizing for regional security,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after he concluded the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting (SMC) with South Korea’s Defense Minister Suh Wook in Seoul. However, the two sides said they remain committed to a diplomatic approach to North Korea.

The meeting covered a variety of issues including wartime strategy amid threats from North Korea, regional security cooperation, and the new arms race in the region. They also discussed deepening trilateral security cooperation among the U.S., the Republic of Korea and Japan.

Indo-Pacific security

Austin described the ties between the two countries as an “ironclad alliance.” The U.S. Department of Defense in its statement noted that while the alliance remains solid, it is also changing to respond to new capabilities, new challenges and new conditions.

“In the past, the U.S.-South Korea alliance was solely focused on deterring North Korean aggression,” Austin said describing South Korea as “a rising power” and “force for stability” in the Korean peninsula as well as throughout the Indo-Pacific region. “Our progress in our bilateral alliances, readiness and training exercises, and the ways that this alliance contributes to stability throughout the Indo-Pacific,” the defense secretary said.

Wartime operation plans

The United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) defense chiefs approved an update to the strategic guidance used for wartime operation plans. The new war-plans guidance will enable Seoul and Washington to “more effectively deter — and as necessary respond to — DPRK threats to the U.S.-ROK Alliance,” according to a joint U.S.-South Korea communiqué.

The militaries of the two countries will discuss the possibility of conducting an assessment required for the envisioned transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) by next fall.

Currently, the United States would command allied troops in the event of war, but South Korea has been seeking to gain “operational control” (OPCON) to assume and exercise unilateral control over its armed forces in wartime. The full operational capability (FOC) assessment is the second part of a three-phase program to test if South Korea is ready to lead the allies’ combined forces during wartime.

Washington will also maintain its current level of U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea, about 28,500.

Gen. Won In-choul, South Korean chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Minister of Defense Min Suh, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff pose for a photo with South Korean soldiers after a Taekwondo demonstration at the Ministry of Defense in Seoul, Republic of Korea, Dec. 2, 2021. (DoD photo)

Concerns over China’s hypersonic tests

Washington, which has no nuclear hotline to Beijing, has expressed concerns about a new arms race is heating up over hypersonic weapons and space arms.

In Seoul, when Austin was asked if China’s hypersonic missile program complicates the situation in Korea, he responded that the United States “have concerns about the military capabilities that the [Peoples Republic of China] continues to pursue,” saying that “he pursuit of those capabilities increases tensions in the region.” China conducted a test of a hypersonic weapon on July 27 which ” underscores why we consider the PRC to be our pacing challenge and will continue to maintain the capabilities to defend and deter against a range of potential threats from the PRC to ourselves and to our allies” he said.