US-Korea War Games Up the Ante With Nuclear North
“’Operation Invincible Spirit,’ the largest U.S.-South Korean joint military exercise in years, is taking place on the 57th anniversary of the Korean War armistice on July 27. This unhappy coincidence is a stark reminder that war has never officially ended on the Korean peninsula, and peace remains precarious,” says Asia Society Associate Fellow Charles Armstrong. “North Korea has responded to the exercises with threats of a ‘retaliatory sacred war’ and hinted that it will set off another nuclear test, after its nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009. China has criticized the U.S.-South Korean moves, which threaten to exacerbate U.S.-China tensions and overshadow the ASEAN forum in Hanoi. The term ‘Invincible Spirit’ alludes to the U.S.-South Korean ‘Team Spirit’ military exercises that began in the mid-1970s, at the height of Cold War tensions on the Korean peninsula. The spirit of those times seems to have returned.”
Charles is in New York, where he is Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University. To arrange an interview, contact the Asia Society communications department at 212-327-9271 or [email protected].