Overview

• Adm. Kim Myung-soo and Gen. Dan Caine held a bilateral summit in Seoul on July 10 to review the U.S.–South Korea alliance and regional security threats.
• They deliberately avoided discussions of raising Seoul’s financial contributions for stationing 28,500 U.S. troops.
• The United States urged South Korea to increase its defense budget to 5 percent of GDP to strengthen deterrence against North Korea and China.
• Officials continue to speculate that Washington may cut the size of U.S. Forces Korea or redefine their mission to prioritize potential Chinese threats.
• In their trilateral session with Japan’s Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, the chiefs agreed to enlarge the Freedom Edge exercise and condemned North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs along with its military ties to Russia.