PHOTO: REPRESENTATIVE RICH MCCORMICK/FACEBOOK
Republican lawmaker urges Trump to restore South Korea military drills
· The Straits Times- A Republican lawmaker urged President Trump to restore joint military drills with South Korea, emphasising the importance of the alliance against communism.
- Trump cut short the August drills, calling them a hostile signal to North Korea and linked his decision to South Korea's refusal to assist in the Iran conflict.
- Despite the early end to exercises, North Korea responded with missile launches, viewing the decision as insignificant to their stance.
WASHINGTON – A Republican lawmaker questioned US President Donald Trump’s decision to cut short a joint military exercise with South Korea, saying the US should show more allegiance to a longtime Asian ally.
The US and South Korea agreed to curtail August’s military drills after Trump ordered a reduction of such joint exercises in a social media post that cited his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“I hope it’s temporary,” representative Rich McCormick of Georgia said on Aug 22 on Bloomberg This Weekend.
South Korea should be kept “closer to us, not to other countries who are basically invested in communism,” he said.
McCormick, a US combat veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee who says he spent time with South Korean troops on his foreign tours, said integration with foreign allies is “very good for our force projection.”
“They see the world similarly,” he said of South Korea. “They have one enemy, one fight.”
While Trump “has a lot more information than I do,” McCormick said “I’m not sure what all played into that decision” on the military exercise.
Trump on Aug 16 described the drills as an “inappropriate and hostile” signal to North Korea and suggested he was frustrated that South Korea had declined to help with the Iran war he started in February.
After Trump’s announcement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the allies agreed to conclude the joint exercises on Aug 21, six days sooner than originally scheduled.
North Korea has dismissed the decision as immaterial in its view, however, and launched a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles on Aug 20 in a show of force. BLOOMBERG