South Korea says it is moving forward with is own aerial exercise after December’s scheduled Joint Vigilant Ace dill with the United States was canceled
After the United States announced it was suspending a joint air defense military exercise with South Korea, Seoul announced it will conduct its own drill.
The joint aerial exercise Vigilant Ace had been planned for December 2018, but was canceled by the Pentagon to give diplomatic efforts with North Korea “every opportunity to continue.”
Experts speaking to VOA were divided on whether conditions on the peninsula had advanced enough to warrant the exercise’s suspension and have their intended effect.
Vigilant Ace is one of two major exercises suspended since the June Singapore summit between U. S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The exercises were suspended to ease tensions on the peninsula and encourage dialogue with Pyongyang, so it would abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
But a South Korean defense ministry official announced on Monday, “No changes will be made to the drill to be staged by the South Korean Air Force, though the joint programs will not take place.”
Last year, the joint Vigilant Ace exercise had more than 230 aircraft and around 12,000 U. S. service members participating.
Incentivising North Korea
The two Korean leaders have met three times in 2018, most recently in September, when South Korean President Moon Jae-in traveled to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim Dong-yub, Kyungnam University’s Head of Office Research at the Institute for Far East Studies, tells VOA the cancellation reflects changes on the Korean peninsula and in the North Korea – United States relationship.
That sentiment is not shared by Daniel Pinkston, international relations lecturer at Seoul’s Troy University.
“It appears that the intention of the cancellations is to persuade or encourage North Korea to make progress in denuclearization, but North Korea has already made those commitments in the past [and] I don’t know if this is going to convince North Korea,” said Pinkston.
