1. THE KOREA TIMES 

Tuesday, June 10, 2024                                                       Page 12

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1.                       Opinion
2. Voice of Readers
3. Thoughts of the Times

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      Safeguarding our nation

                                        By Lee Sun-ho              

                    

 

• On May 26 this year, I attended the 2025 Memorial Day Ceremony at Barker Field inside the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. I was invited by Gen. Xavier T. Brunson, commander of ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command who assumed his new duty to Korea on Dec. 20, 2024 in lieu of the Korea-America Association, in the midst of the turmoil following the martial law declaration by former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Unlike the Korean Memorial Day, observed on June 6 every year, the U.S. observes the occasion on the last Monday in May.
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• Both Korean and American participants once again remember and honor the dead from bygone battles and pray for an end to all wars. It was my first experience to witness the ceremonial proceedings, including an invocation, the presentation of the wreath, the 21 gun salute, the raising of the flag and a moment of silence, supported by the musical performances of the U.S. Eighth Army Band.
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• A memorial service is important for everyone because it provides a time to remember and honor all those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in maintaining freedom, peace, and international sovereignty around the world.
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• Although Brunson was unable to attend the solemn event, his two-star deputy represented him. Listening to Brunson’s formal interviews several times recently gave me a valuable opportunity to seriously reflect on the importance of multilateral military strategy and tactics across the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific region as a whole. This reflection came amid the ongoing uncertainty and evolving strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China.
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• I was interested in Brunson’s emphasis on the strategic importance of Korea’s geographical position described as an island or fixed aircraft carrier, floating between Japan and China. He encouragingly called it the East Sea instead of the Sea of Japan and the West Sea instead of China’s Yellow Sea. It is also true that Camp Humphreys is the largest U.S. military base in the world and the nearest to Beijing in location, as he noted. He estimated the world ranking of the Korean Army as the 10th strongest.

 

As a Fayettevill-grown general officer. Brunson has served in numerous staff and command positions in conventional and special operations forces, including Operation Iraqi Freedom. Under the increasing unpredicability of U.S.-China relations and Russia-North Korea connections applied to geopolitics, a U.S.-plus large-scale framework is essential for Seoul's allied econmic upgrading and military security, bilaterally or multilaterally.

 

With the maintenance of 28,500 U.S. armed forces stationed in Korea, it is quite flexible and pragmatic to move some troops to Guam or Taiwan, if necessary abd sufficient, as North Korea's 11,000 combat forces and 8,000 supporting labor workers were deployed to Russia for the interests of Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukrine.  Trilateral security cooperation with Japan should also continue to be strengthened, no doubt.

 

We still live in a world where war victims, past and present, are among  us. Once again, we remember and honor our Korean and American fallen heroes and pray for peace across global communities. We stand ready to support any future combat or peacekeeping missions in which Korean and American fighers serve. May the brave fallen heroes and heroines rest in eternal peace.

 

The writer (wkexim@naver.com) is a freelance columnist living in Seoul.

 

 

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