South Korean President Moon Jae-in had a meeting Tuesday with major commanders of South Korean militaries and the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), the first such meeting bringing key military commanders from the two sides together since Moon's inauguration two years ago, according to the presidential Blue House.
Attendees from the South Korean side were Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Park Han-ki, Combined Forces Command (CFC) Deputy Commander Choi Byung-hyuk and the top commanders of the army, navy, air force and the marine corps.
Participants from the U.S. side were USFK Commander Robert Abrams, USFK Deputy Commander Kenneth Wilsbach, USFK Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans and Policy James Lukeman, Special Operations Command Korea Commander Tony Bauernfeind and the Eighth Army's Deputy Commander Patrick Donahoe.
Moon told the meeting that based on the firm South Korea-U.S. alliance and the airtight defense posture of the combined forces, the peace process could be boldly pursued for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the lasting peace settlement.
Moon said the improved relations and the eased military tensions between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) were of great help for denuclearization talks between the United States and the DPRK.
The South Korean leader noted that the changed Korean Peninsula situations, together with the trust between U.S. President Donald Trump and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, played a great role in maintaining dialogue momentum even after the Hanoi summit.
The second summit between Trump and Kim ended without agreement in late February at the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
For the past year, South Korea and the DPRK took actions to defuse military tensions across the inter-Korean border, including the trial withdrawal of some guard posts from the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the joint excavation of the war remains in the DMZ and the disarmament of the Joint Security Area (JSA), where armed soldiers from the two Koreas stood face-to-face.
