President Trump’s decision to cancel joint exercises with South Korea caused a “slight degradation” of the U.S. military’s readiness to fight a war on the peninsula, Gen. Abe Abrams, who is nominated to lead forces there, said on Tuesday.
But Abrams told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the decision was a “prudent risk” to build trust and encourage negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear weapons program.
Trump canceled two major U.S.-South Korea exercises that were scheduled in August and September in a surprise announcement after his June summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“Something has to adjust in my view to be able to start to build trust and confidence as we move forward in the relationship. I think that there was certainly degradation to the readiness of the force for the combined forces, that’s a key exercise to maintain continuity and to continue to practice our interoperability, and so there was a slight degradation,” Abrams testified to the Senate panel.
Armed Services is weighing whether to forward to the full Senate Abrams’ nomination as commander of U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command, and Combined Forces Command. The top military official on the peninsula typically handles all three commands.
Abrams said he has confidence in the current Korea commander’s plan to maintain security on the peninsula without the training, but told senators it is “hard to judge” how long the military could put off the exercises before it begins having major effects.
Korea forces’ current plan is to hold smaller level staff exercises if the larger exercises remain off the table, Abrams said.
“It would not be of the same scale, scope and volume in the information domain as say, Ulchi-Freedom Guardian,” he said.
For now, the Pentagon is planning for the next major exercises with South Korea next spring, but no final decision has been made.
Trump said in late August that there was no reason to restart exercises he has called expensive.
