Decision announced following trilateral talks among US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts
The United States and South Korea have suspended another major military exercise in a continued push for diplomacy, the Pentagon said Friday.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said the two militaries would suspend their joint air exercise, dubbed Vigilant Ace, in order to “give the diplomatic process every opportunity to continue.”
The decision was announced following trilateral talks among U. S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts. The defense ministers are in Singapore for an Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) defense ministers’ meeting.
The suspension of the air exercise follows a number of U. S. military decisions in the past year aimed at persuading North Korea to negotiate a verifiable path to giving up its nuclear weapons.
The United States and South Korea delayed their first large-scale exercise of the year, Foal Eagle, so it would not clash with the Winter Olympics.
Later they canceled Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, their second large-scale joint exercise that had been scheduled for August.
That cancellation came after an unprecedented June summit between U. S President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, where Trump announced the U.
