In a surprise development, the Pentagon just announced it was suspending the next round of military exercises with South Korea to give diplomacy a chance to work. This comes after days of acrimony between the Trump and Moon administrations over the sanctions imposed on North Korea and the pace of inter-Korean reconciliation, plus lots of harping and hand-wringing from Washington’s North Korea expert class that both Trump and Kim have given up too much to Kim Jong Un. 

CNN is on the story:

Here’s the official statement, as captured by ABC News:

My colleagues at The Defense Post just posted an excellent backgrounder (and also grabbed a good photo from the US Air Force):

Last year’s Vigilant Ace drills involved 230 aircraft, including F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters, and tens of thousands of troops, the largest ever joint air exercise between the U.S. and South Korea, and a move North Korea labeled an “all-out provocation.”

Following U.S. President Trump’s June meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the United States said it would suspend “select” exercises with South Korea, including the large-scale Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises scheduled for August.

Jeong said in August no decision had been made over whether to conduct the drills after Trump cancelled some exercises to ease relations with Pyongyang.

Mattis said at the time that there were no plans to suspend more drills.
Last month, the then nominee to head U.S. and United Nations forces in South Korea said the pause in drills had been a “prudent risk” to help facilitate a detente on the peninsula.

But there “was certainly a degradation in the readiness of the force, for the combined forces,” General Robert Abrams told the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing.

Here’s what I say about this announcement in an article to be posted shortly in The Nation:

This was a strategic move: last year’s Vigilant Ace drills involved over 230 aircraft and were denounced by the North as an “all out provocation,” a term Trump himself used when he first cancelled US-Korean drills in June. 

The gesture can only be good news for the Korea peace process and might be seen in Pyongyang as the US response to its demand for “corresponding measures” in return for its own steps towards denuclearization. And it could show that that President Moon Jae-in’s persistence in pressing for continued engagement is paying off, big time.

One thing  is certain: the news is going to stir up the hawks who don’t like how Trump and Moon are handling North Korea. Just look at the comments in the CNN and ABC feed. You can tell who’s been reading the mainstream US media!

UPDATE: The harping has begun! Naturally it’s the fanatical uber-hawk Gordon G. Chang, perhaps the most beloved North Korea “expert” on the three major cable networks, CNN, MSNBC and Fox – see my Nation piece when it’s out.