WSJ Interview with Commander ROK-U.S. Combined Forces ROKAMERA
“We need to be assured that we will respond appropriately to North Korea’s actions.”
Commander-in-Chief of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command Paul Ruckamra announced that the focus on deterring North Korea has shifted from halting North Korea’s development of nuclear capabilities to preventing its use of nuclear weapons.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published on the 11th (local time), Commander Rucamara said, “We must provide assurance that positive actions will be responded to with positive actions, and negative actions will be responded to with negative actions.”
In this interview held at CP Tango, the ROK-US Combined Forces Command Center in Seongnam, Commander Rucamera said that the ‘Shield of Freedom’ ROK-US joint exercise, which will be held from the 4th to the 14th of this month, is aimed at responding to a wide range of potential threats from the North Korean military.
He said he was emphasizing to soldiers that they should learn lessons from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and that they should not experience a failure of imagination.
When asked where North Korea’s State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un is likely to incite inter-Korean conflict, he said, “We are focusing on capabilities. “If I could read (other people’s) minds, I would probably be doing something different,” he said, declining to comment.
Regarding the relationship between Chairman Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he did not mention any specific details, choosing to assume maximum North Korea-Russia military cooperation.
At the same time, regardless of North Korea’s military development, he said, “I don’t want a fair fight.”
He introduced the wartime command center in preparation for an armed conflict with North Korea and explained, “This is the center and brain.”
Kang Shin-cheol, deputy commander of the ROK-US Combined Forces Command, also said in an interview with WSJ that North Korea’s weapons are a real and clear threat, and compared the response strategy to reaching a stalemate in chess, saying, “(North Korea) is trying to create a situation in which it cannot use nuclear weapons.” He explained.
Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the WSJ that South Korea and the United States are still working to come up with an acceptable response for all scenarios, adding, “I think there is some sunshine between the two countries.”
Sydney Seiler, former North Korea affairs officer at the National Intelligence Committee (NIC) under the U.S. Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI), explained that Chairman Kim is concerned about the Yoon Seok-yeol government’s strengthening of military cooperation between South Korea, the United States, and Japan, and that North Korea’s hostility toward South Korea is aimed at weakening it.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.