The United States of America and South Korea have postponed military drills

Moreover, Washington states that it is not yet another concession to Pyongyang.

Actions directed at the establishment of peaceful relationships with North Korea yet again have suffered failure. The USA and South Korea have postponed their military drills to bolster peace incentives. It can be considered another concession to Pyongyang. Washington, however, doesn’t concur with this statement.

The drills implied to perform the “Combined summer training” for imitation of air combats. The number of military vehicles meant to take part in this training has not been unveiled.

North Korea is still against conducting these types of drills, despite the fact that this year they were constricted in comparison with the previous ones. Scaling down the training is construed as a mark of respect for Pyongyang. According to Mark Esper, the Defence Minister of USA, the U.S. and South Korean soldiery have relocated to new training grounds and are fully prepared. Mark emphasized on this action being considered exceptionally as a peacemaking step and in no way a concession. He made this announcement to reporters collectively with his partner Jeong Kyeong-doo. The meeting took place in Bangkok. The aim was to arrange negotiations between Asian Defence Ministers. They talked about creating a space for diplomats for discussing the denuclearisation of the peninsula. The question of the soon-coming drills was also raised.  

In turn, Pyongyang systematically declares its protest against the joined military drills of the USA and South Korea. They see such operations as rehearsals for the future invasion of their country. Just under a month ago, a North Korea diplomat has blamed the U.S. joined aerial combat training in “throwing cold water” because of Washington negotiations.

The USA Wants Resumption Of Negotiations

What effect will the decision made in Washington and Seoul have is not apparent. Will they be successful in having a peaceful discussion with Pyongyang at the negotiating table? Will North Korea pass up its developed nuclear weapon program? Esper expresses his expectations for a positive answer. He calls for DPRK to continue negotiating without hesitation and not bringing up any additional counter conditions.

The negotiations with North Korea are stumped at the moment. The country reacted with a sequence of rocket launches, and according to the experts, they continue manufacturing nuclear weapons not asking anyone for permission. 

Missile launchers testing has practical importance for North Korea military forces attempts to modernize their arsenal. Pyongyang is still in the military mood and believes the U.S. to be hostile and rigid country.

North Korea claimed to make an attempt at positive construing of the USA corrections over the joined drills. But the recently signed UN human rights resolution has shown its insincerity in the upcoming negotiations.

Pyongyang has criticized the UN resolution and called it “hostile USA politics” aimed at overthrowing the power. The document was claimed a political provocation by the USA.

The official KCNA agency shared the North Foreign Minister’s declaration. It says that before raising the nuclear weapons issue, the USA should cancel its hostile policy towards North Korea. Until then, the relationships mitigation and denuclearisation discussion are out of the question.

Don’t be optimistic

The Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono advocates for bolstering defenses of all of the three countries. The meeting of Esper and South Korean Jeong took place in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

Taro Kono calls not to pay optimistic expectations towards North Korea. This country has not once launched ballistic rockets, both in the aerial space and underwater. Only this year more than 20 missiles were launched.

Once back home, the politicians began to criticize Trump’s decisions. They accused him of being too compliant with Pyongyang and not accomplishing any beneficial conditions for the USA. In response, Donald Trump stated that he has lowered people’s anxiety over the military conflict with North Korea and halted the drills, thus preventing intercontinental ballistic rockets from launching.

Donald Trump is the first actual U.S. president to “step” onto the North Korean territory. It happened during the meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. He first raised the issue of ceasing the systematic expensive drills with South Korea. It was later investigated that this concerned only the large-scale drills conducted on the peninsula. So the United States, as well as North Korea, are going to continue with different types of military drills.

At the moment, North Korea and the USA are not considering the combined training competition on the fly. This training has been prohibited in 2017. These types of aerial drills were called Vigilant Ace. The exercise implied raising in the air more than 230 aircraft, including six invisible flying jets F-22 Raptor, with about 12 000 American military soldiers taking part in it.

When the postponed drills will be resumed has not been announced yet. Jeong can’t share even approximate expectations. He says that all the matters are going to be decided during the negotiations in Washington.