Halting ‘war games’ on Korean peninsula degraded UN forces’ readiness for a North Korean military threat, nominee for commander’s post says
General Robert Abrams, the four-star commanding general of the US Army Forces Command, was grilled by a US Senate panel on his nomination to become commander of all US forces in South Korea
The ability of US-led United Nations forces to respond to a North Korean military threat has degraded since US President Donald Trump agreed to suspend military exercises on the Korean Peninsula, the Pentagon’s nominee to command American troops in the region said on Tuesday.
General Robert Abrams, the current four-star commanding general of the US Army Forces Command, made the comment to the US Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing on his nomination to take over the UN Command, the Combined Forces Command and US Forces in South Korea.
When asked by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen about the impact of suspending the military exercises, Abrams replied: “There was certainly degradation to the readiness of the combined forces”.
The US said in late June that it had indefinitely suspended selected military exercises on the Korean peninsula to support Trump administration talks aimed at removing nuclear weapons from North Korea in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
Kim Jong-un had long denounced US-South Korea military exercises in the region as an act of war aimed at North Korea.