South Korean (R.O.K) Soldiers prepare for war game exercise.
On August 22, 2014 Robert Work, the Deputy Secretary of Defense met with U.S. troops serving in the Republic of Korea. There he asked for and received questions regarding a variety of topics. One in particular dealt with the strategic military alliance between Korea and The United States, that dovetailed into missile defense capabilities.
“Q: Sir, Commander Mike (inaudible), 352nd. Sir, we’re lucky enough to serve alongside some very motivated Korean counterparts, and our relationships are really strong. And it’s the advantage of our alliance, I think.
Sir, my question is, in the next decade, how do you envision maintaining our technological advantage to support military capabilities for the alliance in the Asia-Pacific region, despite financial responsibilities?
MR. WORK: Well, it’s a great question. And to be here for the last two days has really been something. I mean, the U.S.-Korean alliance is the linchpin of security in Northeast Asia. And our alliance has been strong for 60 years.
Every war that the United States has had, South Korea has been right alongside us: in Vietnam, in Operation Desert Storm, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom.
When the South Koreans needed help on evacuating their personnel from Libya, they asked for our help, for ISR, and we immediately gave them to it, because this is such a very, very strong alliance.
And when I come here and I watch up in CP Tango, when I see both sides working together, this is really, really a strong alliance. So, what I was telling people — and my perspective, we have to work on four things, really, to get better together. Because we go together. We go forward together.
North Korean nuclear missile ranges. AFP: North Korean Army has approval to launch “merciless” nuclear strike on U.S. involving possible use of “cutting edge” nuclear weapons
— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) April 3, 2013.
So, the first issue is the area of missile defense. North Korea has an awful lot of missiles. We have to get better at it. We have to integrate our forces together.
C4I, our command, control, and communications computer and intelligence, and ISR: intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, we need to really link these together so that we get better.
So, these type of things, we can make our alliance better, but I’ve gotta tell you, this is one of the strongest alliances we’ve ever had. And we value the partnership with South Korea. And together, we are going to make sure that deterrence holds in Northeast Asia.
So I think it’s — this is just a great, great partnership, and it was really good to be here.”
Source: DoD http://www.defense.gov/bios/depsecdef/
See related article: Mobile ICBM missile threat from North Korea poses a serious threat to the United States military https://groundreport.com/mobile-icbm-missile-threat-from-north-korea-poses-a-serious-threat-to-the-united-states-military/
See related article in 2012 U.S. forces in Korea lack troops, force structure, missile defense and equipment http://www.examiner.com/article/u-s-forces-korea-lack-troops-force-structure-missile-defense-and-equipment
See also: Republicans in Congress want to deploy a tactical nuclear weapon in Korea https://groundreport.com/republicans-in-congress-want-to-deploy-a-tactical-nuclear-weapon-in-korea/