South Korean Pres. considers downsizing SK-US military exercises in exchange for denuclearization

a reply to: seagull

My only concern is there may be purges in the SK military like what happened in Turkey likely caused by the Current President.

In fact there was a New York Times article stating that the current President's supporters intimidated his political opponents.

During the recent confirmation hearing for the prime minister, lawmakers who opposed the appointment received thousands of text messages containing insults and threats, to the point that the committee chairman had to issue a public plea for restraint. Centrists, liberals and even people within Mr. Moon’s own party have all suffered what appear to be concerted attacks from his followers.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions came under assault mid-May for denouncing the president’s choice for the anticorruption czar. L.G.B.T. rights groups have been silenced after trying to raise the issue of discrimination with Mr. Moon at public forums. Resentment from what could be core allies of the president piles up. Mr. Moon has done little to rein in the “Red Guard,” as some detractors call his fan base. His election campaign was accused of coordinating with a private supporters’ group to steer online discourse in a favorable direction.

Mr. Moon has hired a presidential secretary convicted of illegally disseminating online content in 2012, and he has defended his extreme supporters’ antics as “a kind of spice that makes our competition more interesting.”

www.nytimes.com...

Judging from this article, I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future, many South Korean military officers were simply forced to leave their positions due to "scandals" if they were considering of launching a military coup against the President.

rational thinking... oh the humanity..!

a reply to: starwarsisreal

To the OP and the topic of the thread, I don't believe that NK will stop continuing research on missiles and nuclear materials simply because SK and the U.S ( and any other countries) scale down military exercises. I think they have made it quite clear previously that they will continue, and have done so, even after greater acts of appeasement have been given and offered.

Having said that, we've been conducting these drills and games for years and I would assume by now that we have it down so to speak. I'm not sure that decreasing them would harm our readiness too greatly at this point.