WASHINGTON — Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said combined South Korea-U.S. exercises are currently run as large-scale command post drills but that dispersed training is now needed to reflect changed conditions. His remarks were read as meaning that South Korean and U.S. forces should operate in a dispersed manner across the Korean Peninsula to counter a North Korea that has gained combat experience by deploying troops to Ukraine.
Speaking on the 12th at an annual event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington, Brunson said of the combined exercises held twice a year as large-scale command post drills that there is a need to move away from that approach. He said he is discussing with Gen. Kim Seong-min, deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, ways for the allies to operate in a dispersed fashion.
"What would it look like if we trained from Jeju all the way up to Gyeonggi Province," Brunson said. He urged the audience to imagine reaching a point where the allies conduct training across the entire peninsula and can tell North Korea that it will not be able to apply to them what it learned in Ukraine. "We learn the same lessons and disperse ourselves in a way that we do not become targets ourselves. Not being fixed in one place," he stressed. With U.S. President Donald Trump having signaled in August his willingness to resume talks with North Korea and ordered a scaling back of the combined exercises, attention is turning to whether the comments will translate into an actual change in how the drills are run.
Brunson also outlined the regional sustainment hub concept that U.S. Forces Korea has been pursuing, noting that South Korea has a world-class defense industrial base. "In the future, especially in a fight in the Pacific, the ability to sustain is critical. Whether that is the ability to protect what is forward deployed, or the ability to be self-sufficient from Korea inside the first island chain," he said. He did not refer to China directly, but the remarks were read as hinting at using South Korea's defense industrial base to secure sustained combat capability in a Taiwan contingency.
On the 13th, Brunson is scheduled to take part in a discussion hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he will address the military alliance between the U.S. Army and South Korea's armed forces, interoperability with joint forces and military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region.