Selva Discusses Threats, Capabilities During Confirmation Hearing

By Jim Garamone

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2015 – Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are the nations most able to threaten the United States, according to the president’s nominee to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In his confirmation hearing today, Air Force Gen. Paul Selva told the Senate Armed Services Committee that while terror groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have the desire and capability to attack the American homeland, they do not present an existential threat to the United States.

If confirmed by the Senate, Selva, who is currently the commander of U.S. Transportation Command, will succeed Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr. to become the tenth vice chairman.

Types, Degrees of Threat

Selva hastened to add that these nations do not present a clear and present danger today. “In that order, you see the countries that are peer and near-peer competitors who are developing conventional and nuclear weapons that match our own,” he said. “You see opaque governments that have ideologies that we don’t agree with, and you see the broad base of terrorist threats that might threaten our interests abroad, our interests abroad and our homeland.”

Russia is the preeminent threat, the general said, because that nation possesses conventional and nuclear capabilities, should Russian leaders choose to use them.

Selva said the threat posed by ISIL and similar extremist organizations is one that must be dealt with, but it's regional in nature. “ISIL does not possess the tools or the capabilities to threaten the existence of the United States as we know it,” he said.

The United States is also increasingly at risk in space and across the networks of cyberspace, he added.

“Effectively confronting these threats, as diverse as they are, requires a whole-of-government approach,” Selva said. “Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Cost Guardsmen truly are the heart and soul of our competitive advantage, and they are far more effective when the full weight of our country’s power is working in unison.”

Budget Concerns

Selva noted another direct threat to the U.S. military: sequestration -- spending caps that will take effect Oct. 1 in the absence of congressional action to change budget law.

“We see the effects of sequestration and the potential declines in the defense budget affecting readiness," he said. "They affect our ability to train those young men and women to do their work. They affect our ability to maintain and reset the equipment that they have been using for the better part of the last decade and a half in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they affect our ability to retain the best of those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines."

Selva called overseas contingency operations funding -– money appropriated outside the DoD base budget -– “a one-year incremental fix to a long-term problem.”

The general said he is concerned about Iran and its policy of sponsoring terrorism.

With the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program finalized, “the sequential lifting of sanctions will give Iran the access to more economic assets with which to sponsor state terrorism should they chose to do so,” he said. “I think we need to be alert to that possibility, and, as the military, we have an obligation to provide the president with a full range of options to respond.”

Finally, Selva stressed the importance of military-to-military ties. “I think it is very important that our senior military leaders maintain an open dialogue with the senior military leaders of competitor nations so that we can minimize the chance of miscalculation or missteps,” he said.

“In any military operation anywhere in the world -- that goes for Russia and China, specifically, and for any other country that might wish us ill -- we need to open those dialogues to make sure that we don’t miscalculate,” the general said.

North Korea Remains Key Focus for Pacific Command

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

CAMP SMITH, Hawaii – Nearly six decades after an armistice agreement established a cease-fire that ended the Korean War, maintaining the fragile peace there and ensuring South Korean and U.S. troops are prepared to respond to aggression remains a top priority for U.S. Pacific Command.

North Korea looms as the most pressing trouble spot in Pacom’s vast area of responsibility that spans half the globe, Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, the Pacom commander, told American Forces Press Service.

Locklear expressed concern about tenuous, unstable conditions stemming from North Korea’s new, relatively untested leader, Kim Jong Un, and North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“If there is anything that keeps me awake at night, it’s that particular situation,” the admiral said. “We have to ensure that we maintain as much of a stable environment on the Korean peninsula as we can.”

Toward that end, Locklear relies heavily on the leadership of Army Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of Combined Forces Korea and U.S. Forces Korea, to ensure that South Korean and U.S. forces remain strong.

Traveling to South Korea to meet with Thurman and South Korean leaders shortly after assuming the top U.S. military post in the Asia-Pacific region in March, Locklear emphasized the importance of the U.S.-South Korean alliance in deterring aggression and maintaining security and stability.

Locklear offered assurance of the “unwaverable” U.S. commitment to the alliance.

Although tensions on the peninsula have ebbed and flowed since the signing of the armistice, North Korean provocations, coupled with uncertainty as the new leader took power, have remained relatively high in recent years, noted William McKinney, director of Locklear’s North Korea strategic focus group. The group of military and civilian experts, one of three “mini think tanks” within the Pacom staff, advises Locklear and his senior staff on the North Korean threat and plans for a U.S.-South Korean military response, if required.

McKinney, a retired foreign area officer who spent 15 years of his military service in South Korea, plus three years as the civilian U.S. representative for the Korea Energy Development Organization, expressed disappointment about the difficult stalemate that continues to characterize the peninsula.

“We’ve been [in] sort of [a] treading-water situation for quite some time with North Korea,” he told American Forces Press Service at the Pacom headquarters here.

There’s a common saying within McKinney’s strategic focus group. “We had to build a fence across the peninsula to fence out North Korea,” he said. “But regrettably, that has also fenced us out from North Korea. It was never intended to be a lasting division.”

Ultimately, McKinney said, the United States would love a unified Korean peninsula -- but only, he emphasized, if it had “a democratically elected, free market-based government for all of the Korean people.”

In a perfect world, that unified Korea would be an ally to the United States and a source of regional stability, he added.

While acknowledging that it’s still too soon to know the impact of Kim’s leadership, McKinney admitted that some of the initial signs are worrisome.

A missile test conducted just months after he came to power defied North Korea’s agreement to a moratorium on missile testing in exchange for 240,000 tons of U.S. food aid. North Korea also has yet to return to the Six-Party Talks with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

A nuclear-free Korean peninsula is critical, McKinney explained, because a nuclear-armed North Korea would upset the balance of power in the region. Making it particularly troubling, he said, is concern that a weak, even rogue North Korean state is ill-prepared to handle the challenges and responsibilities of possessing nuclear weapons.

The balance-of-power issue has dogged the Korean peninsula for the past 100 years as Japan, China and Russia all fought to control it, McKinney noted. And during that timeframe, the peninsula has been a primary battleground for four of the five wars in the Pacific: the Sino-Japanese War of 1894; the Russia-Japanese War of 1905; World War II; and the Korean War. At the signing of the Korean conflict’s armistice agreement on July 27, 1953, the United States had lost 37,000 military lives and suffered 92,000 wounded. And what happens on the Korean peninsula today remains critically important to the United States, McKinney said.

That’s not only because of the U.S. alliance with South Korea, he said, but also because the destabilizing balance-of-power situation hasn’t gone away and continues to affect the entire region.

McKinney said he’s been impressed by the growing professionalism of South Korea’s military, which has been operating side by side with 28,500 U.S. troops there to maintain the peace.

“Over the years, there is no question that the [South Korean] forces have strengthened themselves and become a more professional military -- a military that has modern weaponry, knows how to use it and that has operated for the last 25 years or more in a combined command with the United States,” he said. “They have become, in all senses, a much more modern, professional military than they were 60 years ago.”

As South Korea prepares to assume wartime operational control of its forces from the United States in 2015 and the United States focuses on rebalancing its military to the Asia-Pacific region, McKinney said, he doesn’t expect many force-posture changes on the Korean peninsula.

“From the standpoint of balance, the United States has really never left the Korean peninsula,” he said. “We have never lessened the importance of our forces on the Korean peninsula [or] our commitment … to the alliance.”

But Locklear made clear while visiting South Korea that North Korea’s government has important decisions to make.

“Should the North Korean leadership choose to start abiding by its international obligations, to cease provocations, this would be a preferred path,” he told reporters in the South Korean capital of Seoul.

“But if further provocations is the path that they would continue to pursue,” he continued, “then the challenge for us is to ensure that our alliance remains strong, that we work closely together to monitor and share information, and that we have the proper procedures in place … [so] the security of the alliance is ensured.”

General: High Readiness Key to Deter North Korean Threats

By Walter T. Ham IV

8th U.S. Army

SEOUL, South Korea  – Maintaining a high state of military readiness is imperative to deterring North Korean threats in the region, the 8th U.S. Army’s deputy commander said here today.

“North Korea continues to threaten the peninsula and the region with its provocative actions and rhetoric as well as its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,” Army Maj. Gen. Walter M. Golden Jr. said during his welcoming ceremony on Yongsan Garrison.

The 8th U.S. Army has partnered with South Korea to deter threats from Pyongyang for more than 60 years, the two-star general said.

“As the U.S. military shifts its focus to the Pacific, this mission remains as important as ever,” said Golden, who hails from Salida, Colo. “Deterring aggression requires a very high state of readiness and that is why it is imperative that we train together with our ROK allies as often as possible to maintain that level of readiness.”

Golden reported to 8th Army following his assignment as the deputy commander for police with the NATO training mission in Afghanistan.

Senior officials attended Golden’s welcoming ceremony, including the ROK Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Park Sung-choon, Dongducheon Mayor Oh Se-chang and Army Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

The Dongducheon mayor had named Golden an honorary citizen of his city, which is adjacent to Camp Casey, during Golden’s previous tour of duty when he was the assistant commander for maneuver with the 2nd Infantry Division.

Golden “will play a crucial role on the 8th Army command team as we continue to defend liberty here with our ROK allies,” said Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson, 8th Army’s commanding general.

An Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot and Harvard graduate, Golden said he jumped at the opportunity to serve in South Korea again.

South Korea “is one of America’s greatest allies and the ROK-U.S. alliance is the strongest military alliance in the world,” Golden said. “Today, this modern, democratic and prosperous nation serves as a great example of what free people can accomplish together.”

South Korea, U.S. Hold Defense, Foreign Affairs Talks

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON  – The U.S.-South Korea alliance is a force for peace and stability in Northeast Asia and the world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today at the start of the “Two-Plus-Two” talks with South Korea.

Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta hosted talks with their counterparts in the South Korean government -- Kim Sung-hwan, minister of foreign affairs and trade, and Kim Kwan-jin, minister of national defense – at the State Department.

The meeting covered a full range of issues from combating piracy in the Indian Ocean to investing in development in Africa to promoting democracy and the rule of law around the world. “It would be difficult to list all the ways we are working together,” Clinton said.

The two nations agreed to increase cooperation on cybersecurity and will add realistic cyber portions to bilateral exercises, Panetta said.

“The talks strengthen our cooperation,” Clinton said. “We enjoy unprecedented coordination on a number of bilateral, regional and global issues.”

The talks are an example of the close, regular conversations on mutual issues and on developments in North Korea, Clinton said. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Republic of Korea allies in the face of threats and provocations,” she said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kim said through an interpreter that the meetings are necessary to keep pace with the changes in the security environment. “It is significant that we are here today to review the changes that we need to continue making,” he said.

Underlying the alliance is the solid trust between the United States and South Korea, he said.

Kim said North Korea continues to be a threat. In 2010, the North sank the South Korean ship Cheonan and shelled a South Korean island. Earlier this year, Pyongyang tried to launch a missile over the objections of the international community.

The U.S.-ROK alliance has “shown an almost perfect cooperation,” he said. “We have also handled some complex alliance issues such as the operational control transition or the base relocation.”

But the allies must not become complacent, Kim said. “Hopefully, today’s meeting will not only strengthen our alliance and send a clear message to North Korea, but also try to seek what we can contribute to the region and the world,” he said.

Panetta said the alliance has been built on shared sacrifices that began during the Korean War and continue today. “As we face the many security challenges and opportunities on the horizon, on the peninsula regionally and globally, we must forge a common, strategic approach and address these issues collectively – rooted in friendship and in mutual interest,” he said.

Korea is a lynchpin of the new defense strategy that rebalances U.S. forces to the Pacific. “One of the cornerstones to our ability to effectively implement that strategy is the close partnership and relationship that we have with the Republic of Korea,” Panetta said. “That’s why it is so important for us to come together to meet, to discuss our common views on the shared security challenges we face and to forge a common strategic approach to those challenges.”

Defense Minister Kim said the alliance between South Korea and the United States is “developing into a multidimensional strategic alliance addressing not only security issues of the Korean peninsula but moves out into the Asia-Pacific and the world.” He added that more than 80 percent of Koreans agree with that.

In defense issues, the two nations have managed well during the transition in North Korea following the death last year of leader Kim Jong Il “through a policy of very close military cooperation, especially in intelligence sharing,” Kim said.

This was the second “Two-Plus-Two” meeting, so named because it combines foreign affairs and national security chiefs. South Korea hosted the first meeting in Seoul in 2010. All parties said the Two-Plus-Two talks will continue.

Commander Seeks Enhanced Deterrent on Korean Peninsula

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – The commander of U.S. Forces Korea is working to ensure all the capabilities needed to defend South Korea are in place.

Army Gen. James D. Thurman told the Association of the Republic of Korea Army today that the U.S. Army has issued guidance to increase the manning levels of the 2nd Infantry Division. He is also working with U.S. service chiefs to keep American might on the peninsula at the highest levels of readiness.

This does not necessarily mean an increase in the number of troops in South Korea, Thurman said. There are about 28,500 Americans based in the country. That number will remain about the same, but the distribution will be changed, he said.

“There is true commitment from the United States and common understanding of the importance that northeast Asia has today,” Thurman said.

The general also is looking for ways to reduce the high U.S. military turnover rate in South Korea. Most U.S. forces deploy to the country for one-year tours. “There’s a constant turnover and loss of people coming and going to Korea,” he said. “I have asked the Army and the other services to help develop options to mitigate this, and I’m confident we will be able to work this.”

Thurman said he is also examining the current U.S. force structure on the peninsula and what modifications must be made to enhance warfighting capabilities.

At his regular Tuesday news conference, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Thurman is dedicated to ensuring “that we and our South Korean allies have the capabilities that we need to ensure the defense of the Republic of Korea.”

“Any recommendations or decisions that he has made with respect to the provision of new equipment, we believe, is part of a calculus that goes on all the time when you’re in a theater like the Republic of Korea and you face a threat across the border,” Little added.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby stressed that nothing Thurman is requesting is new.

“These are … long-standing capabilities that he’s been interested in making sure he has available to him,” Kirby said at the same Pentagon news conference. “In fact, some of them, I think, are intended just to replace or restore assets that deployed to Afghanistan from South Korea that he just simply wants … to get back into his quiver.”

Deterring North Korea is the mission of U.S. forces in South Korea, officials said. North Korea has just gone through regime succession. The North sank the South Korean Navy ship Cheonan in 2010. Later that year, the North shelled a border island killing two civilians and two South Korean Marines. The North also unsuccessfully tried to launch a missile in April that could be used as an ICBM. All these incidents, officials said, point to the threat Pyongyang poses.

“Our readiness defines our deterrent capability and we can never allow that to slip,” Thurman said. “Maintaining high levels of readiness requires having the proper manning, the proper force structure and the most modern equipment.”

Thurman has asked U.S. Army leaders for priority to receive an added attack-reconnaissance helicopter squadron to bring the 2ndInfantry Division’s combat aviation brigade to full strength.

The general said he’s also requested “increased capabilities in terms of theater ballistic missile defense.”

The 2nd Infantry Division already has the Army’s most modern tanks, improved capabilities in the Bradley fighting vehicles and upgraded Blackhawk helicopters, Thurman said.

“We will continue to improve our joint command, control, computers, and intelligence systems, and we will continue to improve our cyber capabilities,” he said. “This is a domain that we must be prepared to operate in from a combined and joint perspective because this is important to mitigate the risks posed by our potential enemies.”

Enhancing interoperability with the South Korean military is a priority for U.S. Forces Korea, Thurman said.

“The ROK-U.S. alliance is the strongest alliance in the world,” the general said. “It is the best military-to-military relationship I have ever experienced in my 37 years serving in the United States military. And it’s the best because it is built on mutual trust and common values.”