![]() ![]() "Regardless of the precise motivations for North Korea's change of tone, the important question for the U.S. Instead, the administration should continue to publicly reaffirm its commitment to the diplomatic process and work behind the scenes with North and South Korea to prevent such a backslide. But it's not hard to imagine a tweet from President Trump jumpstarting a renewed cycle of tit-for-tat threats and insults like we saw in 2017. So far, the brief response from the White House, explaining that it will independently verify the reports and that it will absolutely "continue to go ahead and plan the meeting with Kim Jong Un," is encouraging. ![]() ![]() and South Korea could realistically consider scaling back if not indefinitely suspending future military exercises while talks are ongoing.īeyond scaling back or suspending the war games, the U.S. and South Korea, though unfortunately that solution is unlikely in the short term as the Trump administration would risk the appearance of capitulating to North Korea. The first obvious solution is to immediately and indefinitely postpone the joint military exercises between the U.S. becomes how to prevent further steps backward and continue advancing the cause of peace. Regardless of the precise motivations for North Korea's change of tone, the important question for the U.S. Some analysts also say North Korea's suggestion that the war games could jeopardize the Trump-Kim meeting may just be a negotiating tactic. These new tensions are also developing just one week after President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, which surely raised questions in North Korea about the value or lack thereof of any commitments the U.S. North Korea may have assumed that the exercises would at least not expand in scope during negotiations. It's hard to know exactly what changed the calculation for Pyongyang, but the inclusion of the F-22 and B-52 in the war games was likely a factor. What's somewhat surprising about North Korea's cancellation of the North-South talks is that Kim Jong-un changed his tone on the joint military exercises earlier this year, telling a South Korean official that he "understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue," in the words of the official. According to some reports, the F-22's inclusion in the exercise was apparently not meant to be public, only making the news after a South Korean citizen posted a picture online of an F-22 flying over the South Korean city of Gwangju. Over 1,500 air force personnel and 100 aircraft take part in the war games, including the F-15K, the F-16, as well as the nuclear-capable B-52 and the F-22 Raptor, neither of which took part in Max Thunder last year. and South Korea are offensive in nature and amount to practice for an invasion." "North Korea has long maintained, understandably so, that the joint military exercises between the U.S. The so-called "Max Thunder" military exercises, a name that invokes anything but a defensive posture, began on May 11 and are expected to last for two weeks. and South Korea are offensive in nature and amount to practice for an invasion. North Korea has long maintained, understandably so, that the joint military exercises between the U.S. negotiating posture that assumes immediate and unconditional denuclearization of North Korea, both of which North Korea has cited as reasons it might cancel the Trump-Kim summit. But the greater causes for concern are the U.S.-South Korea war drills and a U.S. North Korea's cancellation of talks planned between North and South Korea is cause for concern, as is its suggestion that the U.S.-North Korea summit scheduled for June 12 could meet the same fate. ![]()
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