Mattis defends US protection of South Korea
352 views · Published 5 November 2018 · 4:46 · Indexed 22 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(31 Oct 2018) United States Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reiterated Wednesday that the U.S. has "a history in our alliance of taking very seriously our responsibility to protect the Republic of Korea people and their freedoms." He was speaking to reporters after meeting his South Korean counerpart for the 50th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Washington, the allies' annual top defense dialogue. "This year's SCM has greater importance and significance than any other meeting, not just due to the fact that it is the 50th of its kind, but also because it comes at a time in which we embark on an audacious journey toward denuclearization of and the establishment of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsular," South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo told reporters. Citing a push for diplomatic progress with North Korea, the United States and South Korea in October scrapped a major military exercise, Vigilant Ace. The move was aimed at trying to nudge North Korea, which despises such U.S.-South Korean exercises, into negotiating about giving up its nuclear weapons in a way that can be verified. In June, the Pentagon canceled this year's Freedom Guardian exercise after President Donald Trump abruptly announced that he disapproved of what he called U.S. "war games" in South Korea. He called the maneuvers provocative and expensive. In response to reporter questions about the impact of canceled military exercises, Kyeong-doo said they were working to mitigate the impact by conducting exercises with US evaluators participating. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/f99adcd444663ea90a27f68462647aca
