The ROK military announced on December 21 its decision to further scale up the ROK-US joint military exercise in the first half of 2023 to reach the level of the previous Foal Eagle exercise. The scale-up and the re-mention of Foal Eagle exercise reflected both Seoul and Washington’s strategic intention to intensify their military alliance, said military observer Yin Zhuo.
韩国军方12月21日表示，决定将在明年上半年进一步扩大韩美联合军演规模，使其达到过去的韩美“ 秃鹫”联合军演水平。韩国和美国扩大联合军演规模、重提“秃鹫”联合军演，军事观察员尹卓认为此举反映出韩美双方加强韩美军事同盟的战略意图。
The ROK Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup recently presided over a top commanders' meeting for the second half of 2022, at which they discussed core topics of ROK's defense policy for 2023 and stressed "nuclear protection" as the pivot of the ROK-US military alliance. Yin Zhuo analyzed that ROK’s current defense policy is centered on intensifying the military alliance with the US to jointly tackle the so-called nuclear missile threat from DPRK, thus borrowing America’s capabilities to mitigate its own security concerns. Moon Jae-in administration called off a series of exercises during his term in hopes of improving the relations with DPRK, but his successor Yoon Seok-Youl has been strengthening the military cooperation with the US and Japan, and joint military exercise is now back on the agenda.
韩国国防部长官李钟燮日前主持召开2022年后半期全军主要指挥官会议，讨论了2023年韩国国防政策核心课题，强调了目前韩美军事同盟的发展重点是加强“核保护伞”。尹卓分析，韩国当前国防政策核心就是强化韩美军事同盟关系，共同应对来自朝鲜的所谓“核导威胁”，借助美国的力量缓解自身安全焦虑。文在寅政府执政期间，韩国叫停了一系列演习，以期改善北南关系。尹锡悦政府上台后，不断加强与美国、日本的军事合作，恢复联合军演就被提上了日程。
The key topic in its national defense policy, according to the ROK government, is closer military ties with the US in response to the so-called nuclear missile threat from the north. To achieve that, in addition to making its own preparations, Seoul also proposed to keep more American strategic assets, which probably refer to aircraft carrying nuclear weapons or even nuclear warheads, on ROK soil.
目前，韩国政府提出的国防重点核心课题，就是加强美韩针对北方“核导威胁”的国防政策。对此，韩国在自身做了一些准备的同时，提出要加强美国“战略资产”——很可能指的是携带核武器的飞机、甚至核弹头，在韩国的长期驻留。
Yin Zhuo further pointed out that it is the US that's the root cause of the ROK's security anxiety, and it is intensifying the alliance with ROK only to turn the Asian country into a forward position for advancing its major country competition strategy. Taking the so-called nuclear missile threat from the north as an excuse, Washington wants to beef up military cooperation with Seoul to put together an Asian version of mini NATO, in which ROK can serve as a forward position where it can intensify military deployments targeting major Asian Pacific countries and Russia.
尹卓进一步指出，事实上美国才是韩国安全焦虑的重要推手，美国强化美韩同盟，是要将韩国打造成美国推进“大国竞争”战略的前沿阵地。美国是想借所谓的北方“核导威胁”，加强美韩军事合作，拼凑亚洲版“小北约”。这样一来，美国就可以把韩国作为一个前沿阵地，加强针对亚太大国和俄罗斯的军事部署。
In another related development, Seoul and Washington have had constant and various joint exercises recently. There was an air exercise scheduled for December 22, for which America's F-22 Raptor stealthy fighters and B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers had arrived at the US military base in ROK and areas surrounding the Korean peninsula. The exercise captured extensive attention even though it was called off in the end due to bad weather. The ramped-up military deployments and scaled-up exercises between the two countries will further undermine peace and development on the Korean peninsula, even the whole Asia Pacific, said Yin.
另据报道，近期韩美各项联合演习不断，韩美原计划于12月22日进行联合空中演习，美国F-22“猛禽”隐身战机和B-52H战略轰炸机曾相继飞抵驻韩美军基地和朝鲜半岛周边区域。虽然演习最终因天气原因取消，但此次演习还是受到了广泛关注。尹卓分析，韩美不断强化军力部署、扩大演习规模，将给朝鲜半岛乃至亚太地区的和平与发展带来进一步影响。
The plan to revive the Foal Eagle joint exercise indicates the recovery and strengthening of military cooperation between the US and ROK, who, both using DPRK's nuclear missile threat as an excuse, are sabotaging regional security by driving up confrontation and forcing regional countries into a new round of arms race. That spells nothing but disaster for the security, stability and peace in the region.
韩美要“复活”“秃鹫”联合军演，说明美韩之间的军事合作得到了恢复和加强。韩美借口北方“核导威胁”，使地区安全局势对抗性陡然升高，迫使地区国家进行新一轮军备竞赛，这对地区的安全、稳定、和平来说，绝对不是福音。
The Asian Pacific economy is growing at a fast pace, and the US has no place in such regional economic arrangements. Therefore, it is its important strategic goal to ruin regional peace and stability and the collective economic arrangements where it has no place.
亚太地区经济正在快速发展，这种地区性的经济安排没有美国。破坏亚太地区的和平与稳定，破坏亚太地区没有美国参加的集体经济安排，是美国重要的战略目标。
Editor's note: Originally published on military.cnr.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
