{"id":54869,"date":"2019-11-21T22:06:46","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T22:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/11\/21\/us-defense-chief-ends-asia-tour-with-same-troubles-risks\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:48:43","slug":"us-defense-chief-ends-asia-tour-with-same-troubles-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/11\/21\/us-defense-chief-ends-asia-tour-with-same-troubles-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"US defense chief ends Asia tour with same troubles, risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HANOI, Vietnam \u2014 U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper ended an Asia tour Thursday with the same trio of troubles on the Korean Peninsula that he found on arrival last week. Together they pose risks to U.S. national security and to the future of Washington\u2019s alliance with South Korea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The toughest of these problems, and arguably the most consequential, is North Korea\u2019s refusal to restart negotiations <\/a>with Washington on eliminating its nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper has no direct role in nuclear diplomacy, but he had hoped that his decision to postpone a military flying exercise<\/a> with South Korea \u2014 which North Korea had criticized as provocative \u2014 would help nudge the North back to the negotiating table. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In announcing the postponement in the Thai capital last weekend, Esper called it an \u201cact of goodwill\u201d that would not degrade the combat readiness of U.S. and South Korean air forces. But the North quickly rejected the gesture, insisting the United States end its \u201chostile policy,\u201d which it sees as the root cause of the tensions that prompted the North to go nuclear in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper told reporters Thursday in Vietnam\u2019s capital, Hanoi, that he was disappointed by the North\u2019s negative response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t regret trying to take the high road, if you will, and keep the door open for peace and diplomacy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem, it now appears, is that the Americans have no idea what the North wants from Washington to end the diplomatic impasse. At stake is the possibility of a return to the level of tension that not long ago pushed both sides toward war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper himself asserted last week that when he became Army secretary in late 2017, \u201cwe were on the path to war; it was very clear to me because the Army was making preparations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce Bennett, a North Korea analyst at the RAND Corp., a federally funded think-tank, sees a dangerous diplomatic disconnect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNorth Korea has been unwilling to explain what an end to \u2018U.S. hostile policy\u2019 means other than to say that the U.S. must no longer treat North Korea as an enemy,\u201d Bennett said in an email exchange this week. \u201cThe dozens of U.S. statements saying that the United States does not seek to destroy the regime have not met this North Korean requirement.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bennett thinks it\u2019s possible that the North will be satisfied with nothing less than a withdrawal of all 28,500 American troops from South Korea and a dissolution of the U.S.-South Korean defense alliance that emerged from the 1950-53 Korean War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korea has demanded that the U.S. come up by the end of this year with a mutually acceptable approach to resuming negotiations on eliminating the North\u2019s nuclear weapons and the infrastructure that supports it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey may move in a different direction\u201d at that point, Esper said Thursday. \u201cSo I think we have to keep pressing forward. It\u2019s too important not to keep trying.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\t