Pyeongtaek, Oct 2 US Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll has said North Korea and China are both "basic threats" in regional security as President Donald Trump's administration might seek to adjust the role of American troops stationed in South Korea to better counter the threat from China.
Driscoll made the remarks as the decades-long alliance between South Korea and the United States is facing a changing security environment amid speculation over a possible adjustment in the role and scope of the US Forces Korea (USFK) in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
"I think the short answer is that both are basic threats," the US Army secretary replied when asked about whether the main purpose of the USFK is North Korea or China.
Driscoll made the remarks at a meeting with reporters at US Army Garrison Humphreys, the USFK's main base, in Pyeongtaek, around 60 kilometres south of Seoul, on Wednesday.
At the same time, Driscoll voiced confidence in the strength of the alliance, which he called "amazing."
"The partnership that has lasted so many decades is vitally important," he said.
"We want to be able to, and we know that we can rely on the ROK army as allies in a way that we just can't always have the same confidence in other parts of the world with other allies."
ROK refers to the acronym of South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
Maj. Gen. William Taylor, acting commander of the Eighth Army, echoed the view as he highlighted the need to further strengthen the alliance against evolving threats.
"Our responsibility is to make sure through our mutual defence treaty together that we have the most capable, adaptable and lethal fighting force that's modernised, to look at any evolving threat in the Indo-Pacific," Taylor said during the event.
Against such a backdrop, Driscoll stressed the importance of deploying high-tech assets to the Korean Peninsula.
The US has rolled in a range of advanced weapons systems to South Korea this year, recently confirming the deployment of an Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) air defence system, dubbed the US version of the Iron Dome, and MQ-9 Reaper drones.
"Our pacing threat is in this part of the world, and in order to mitigate against that threat, we need strong partnerships and allies like we have here, and we want to invest in those," Driscoll said, referring to remarks by US President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"We want to put our most exquisite equipment in the hands of our soldiers here and our allies. And so I expect a lot more of that to be coming into this part of the world."
Driscoll specifically expressed his intent to expand cooperation with South Korea on drones, which he described as "one of the biggest threats for mankind" that are unpredictable and require an array of solutions to deter, Yonhap news agency reported.
"You need a lot of partners and a lot of allies working together to sense them, track them and then to be able to stop them," he said.
"What would be required to effectively protect this area from drone threats is a deep partnership with our ROK allies and the manufacturers, and the technology companies in the area. We desperately need to work with them to roll out solutions that allow us to share information in real time and be able to act against those threats together."
When asked about a recent media report on USFK Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson appearing as a three-star general in an internal service directorate, Driscoll did not directly address the issue but instead mentioned broader efforts to tackle bureaucracy.
"All of those decisions are still ongoing, but the general idea is that we will streamline our decision-making apparatus and push as many soldiers back out to the front lines as soon as possible."
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