US needs to hold military exercises ex

Former U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster / Reuters

The United States should respond to North Korea's recent provocations by conducting joint military exercises with South Korea and resolving the issue of defense cost-sharing between the allies, a former U.S. national security adviser said Wednesday.

H.R. McMaster, who served under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018, said he believes the North Koreans are reverting to a cycle of provocation and extortion of concessions because the regime is growing increasingly desperate under the economic tolls exacted by COVID-19 and the "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign.

His comments come as tensions have heightened on the Korean Peninsula due to North Korea's near-daily threats to punish the South for its failure to stop defectors from flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into the North.

This week, the North blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its border city of Kaesong and threatened repeatedly to move troops back into disarmed zones.

"I think we have to demonstrate our ability to respond to this threat effectively militarily," McMaster said during a virtual seminar hosted by the Hudson Institute.

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"There are exercises scheduled for August. I think those ought to be robust exercises," he continued. "I think from a diplomatic perspective, we need to resolve these burden-sharing issues with South Korea, and with Japan, and show the strength of U.S. bilateral relations both with South Korea and with Japan."

McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general, was referring to the stalled negotiations between Seoul and Washington on a new cost-sharing agreement for the stationing of 28,500 American troops in South Korea.

The U.S. has demanded a significant increase in South Korea's financial contributions, leading to an impasse in talks and the temporary furloughing of thousands of South Korean workers on U.S. bases earlier this year.

McMaster also said that over the long term the U.S. should work to resolve historical and economic tensions between South Korea and Japan, two of its closest Asian allies.

"Because I think every provocation from the North should be seen by the North Koreans and by the Chinese as driving us closer together, and strengthening our resolve to confront this aggression from North Korea," he said. (Yonhap)

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