U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson chatting with reporters throughout a press convention at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Aug. 8. Courtesy of USFK
The commander of American forces in South Korea has underscored the Korean Peninsula’s central function within the U.S. safety technique within the Indo-Pacific area, in keeping with an internet site of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Tuesday, noting the peninsula’s location between the Asian continent and the Pacific area.
Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of USFK, made the remarks at a lecture on the Nationwide Protection College in Washington, D.C., final Wednesday at a time when Seoul and Washington are pushing to “modernize” their alliance in a method that may improve South Korea’s function in its personal protection and its contributions to addressing regional threats.
“Korea just isn’t a aspect chapter in American technique,” Brunson mentioned, in keeping with the web site. “Should you put the peninsula within the first chapter, the geometry of the area and the worth of our alliances develop into inconceivable to disregard.”
Describing the Korean Peninsula as a “hinge between the Asian continent and Pacific maritime approaches,” Brunson mentioned the peninsula “needs to be seen as a central pillar of U.S. and allied technique.”
On the Korean Peninsula, Brunson mentioned the U.S. and allied forces are already positioned inside the primary island chain, a key perimeter for America’s preeminence in opposition to China within the Pacific.
Brunson additionally underscored the ahead posture and alliance modernization on the Korean Peninsula as “important” to deterrence and disaster administration amid North Korea’s deepening navy cooperation with Russia and rising regional threats.
