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US military chief to discuss integrated missile defense during S. Korea visit

March 25, 2015
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, before the House Armed Services Committee hearing on President Obama's use of military force proposal against IS and the Defense Department's budget. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, before the House Armed Services Committee hearing on President Obama’s use of military force proposal against IS and the Defense Department’s budget. (AP Photo/Molly Riley)

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Yonhap) — U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said Tuesday that building an integrated air and missile defense system will be a key topic of discussions when he meets with South Korean officials.

Heading off on a trip to Japan and South Korea, the general also said that the U.S. is making progress on building an integrated air and missile defense umbrella, and Seoul and Tokyo have “made some commitments in procurements on their side to make us more interoperable.”

Dempsey did not elaborate. But his trip has drawn keen attention due to the possibility of him raising the need for a THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile defense battery in South Korea to better defend against North Korean ballistic missile threats.

“We’re making progress on building an integrated air and missile defense umbrella, (and) both the Koreans and the Japanese have made some commitments in procurements on their side to make us more interoperable,” he said in an interview aboard his aircraft, according to the Defense Department’s DoD News.

South Korea has been badly divided over whether to allow such a deployment, with supporters saying the deployment would help better protect against North Korea’s ballistic missile threats, and opponents claiming it would inflame tensions with China and Russia.

Dempsey is scheduled to hold talks with his South Korean counterpart in Seoul on Friday.

Earlier this week, David R. Stilwell, strategic plans and policy deputy director for Asia at the JCS, reportedly said that the THAAD issue will be discussed when Dempsey visits Seoul. But South Korea’s defense ministry rejected the report, saying the issue is off the official agenda.

Other topics of discussions in Seoul would include the delayed transfer of wartime operational control over South Korean forces from Washington to Seoul, training exercises and response options to North Korean provocations, Dempsey said.

“I’ll get a chance to visit with both military leaders and political leaders to reassure them of our commitments and to seek their insights into the region,” Dempsey said of his trip to Japan and Korea.

Feedback from the allies is “important for us to get their insights into the way they see the region evolving, so then we can collaboratively continue to adapt our relationship,” he said.

Dempsey also said that the North’s provocative actions in response to annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States only reinforce the need for such drills. Such exercises are very important to ensure there is a “credible deterrent against provocation” by the North, he said.

“They react in a provocative fashion, which of course has become somewhat predictable and reinforces the need for us to have these meetings and exercises with the frequency that we do,” Dempsey said in an interview aboard his aircraft.

The exercises ensure that the U.S. and the South are prepared with their military capabilities should the communist nation “do more than just provoke,” Dempsey said. The maneuvers are a “critical part of our relationship and we do them with a very steady drumbeat, the same time every year,” he said.

North Korea has long condemned such annual drills as a rehearsal for invasion of the country. In an apparent expression of its anger at the latest exercises, known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, the North fired short-range missiles and surface-to-air missiles into the East Sea on two occasions earlier this month.

South Korea and the U.S. have repeatedly said the drills are purely defensive.

Dempsey said the exercises are held to “rekindle” tactics, techniques and procedures, to ensure the United States can operate collaboratively with its own joint force and with its South Korean allies.