Lee Jae Myung reiterates desire for full command back in Seoul’s hands after Donald Trump cuts joint exercises, citing warm ties with Kim Jong-un

South Korea’s president ⁠has renewed his push to regain independent control of the military from the US in the event of war and urged faster progress in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines after Donald Trump’s order to cut joint drills.

On Sunday night, Trump instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” this week’s joint military exercises with South Korea, saying the nuclear-armed North “has been unthreatening and respectful” and that the US president had a “very good relationship with Kim Jong-un”.

Lee Jae Myung said on Tuesday that Seoul should ​proceed without disruption with ‌the planned transfer, during his term, of ‌wartime operational control, or Opcon, of South Korean forces from the US – a goal he and the government have long held.

  • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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    10 hours ago

    Bascially they need their own nukes now, as does Japan, Germany, Poland and Australia. Trump is destroying the basis for nuclear non proliferation that has been a cornerstone of the fragile stability we had in the past decades.

    • robomuffin79@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Every nation with valuable resources should have nuclear weapons. It makes the world safer. How many lives could have been saved if Saddam or Qaddafi had nuclear weapons? Or if Iran did? North Korea has shown the vital importance of having them

      • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        You’re not wrong, but what happens when a country ‘elects’ a guy who thinks lobbing some plutonium at a hurricane will make it back down and go away and there need to be multiple people involved before anything is launched? MAD does work, but anything dealing with nuke stuff comes to “do this step by precise step or everyone dies” is something us humans should take a little more interest in directing as a planet not nations.

    • Cherry@piefed.social
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      8 hours ago

      I hope they enact their leverage as a chip producer. He thinks he is old school mob running a protection racket.

      So why should thier local producers sell a a key component to tech in a country who is trying to extort them.

  • LincolnsDogFido@lemmy.zip
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    9 hours ago

    So pretend to be friends with the president for a couple years, wait until he pulls military presence from the area then attack. What an easily manipulatable dipshit.

    • Nautalax@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I mean it’s still rather unlikely for North Korea to be able to handle South Korea on their own. North Korea has half of South Korea’s population, far less industry and is technologically considerably behind. Their main advantage (which admittedly is pretty good) is that they can turn Seoul into a crater at any moment which is an unacceptable risk for South Korea. But that doesn’t mean NK will have a great time in war either.

      • LincolnsDogFido@lemmy.zip
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        5 hours ago

        I’m not speaking solely about the Korean peninsula. The same could be said for any country’s relation with the United States at the moment. Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Taliban, China, Russia, Yemen…

  • plyth@feddit.org
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    9 hours ago

    South Korea’s president ⁠has renewed his push to regain independent control of the military from the US

    laughs in SACEUR