Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Gen. Robert Abrams looks to the dais as he testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. On that day, Gen. Abrams was nominated to take command of U.S. and allied forces in South Korea. He said the decision to cancel several major military exercises on the Korean peninsula this year caused a slight degradation in the readiness of American forces. Yonhap |
Army Gen. Robert B. Abrams took office as the new commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Thursday, amid diplomatic efforts by Seoul and Washington to build a lasting peace on the divided peninsula.
The change-of-command ceremony took place at Camp Humphreys, a sprawling U.S. military complex in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, at 10 a.m. It was attended by top South Korean and U.S. officials, including Seoul's Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo.
Abrams, the former chief of the U.S. Army Forces Command, replaced Gen. Vincent Brooks who had led the USFK, the U.N. Command and the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, all headquartered in South Korea, since April 2016.
He is expected to face a series of daunting tasks, including coordinating with South Korean forces over the planned transfer of wartime operational control and exploring ways to maintain a robust readiness posture amid peace efforts with Pyongyang.
 |
| Gen. Robert Abrams, right, shakes hands with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Ok., left, as ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., stands center, after a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. Yonhap |
Observers said he may also play a role in mapping out a new vision of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, as it seeks to broaden its security role that has hitherto focused on countering North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
The incoming commander earned his commission from the U.S. Military Academy in 1982. He has commanded various units in combat operations, including in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Most recently, he served as the chief of the U.S. Army Forces Command from August 2015 until October this year. At the Army's largest organization, he led 229,000 active-duty soldiers.
Brooks, the outgoing commander, has had one of the most turbulent periods in the alliance, marked by a series of the North's military provocations, such as nuclear and missile tests, not to mention menacing verbal threats.
In his recent contribution to a periodical of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brooks said, "We are at a very different place today than when I first arrived" while noting that there were 53 separate North Korean provocations within his first 19 months of command in Korea.
"After years of tensions, the prospects for peace through a final resolution to hostilities combined with denuclearizing are very real," he wrote. "South Korea and the United States are at a historic juncture in our relationship as allies and in the relationships we build with North Korea."
He then stressed that the roots of the alliance, forged in the cauldron of war, are "deep and strong." (Yonhap)
