The Trump administration’s decision to pull out from a landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is not the death knell for American-led efforts to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table, the top U.S. commander on the Korean peninsula said Friday.
“I am not worried about it because the opportunity is not lost. It is just delayed,” Gen. Vincent Brooks, head of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), said during a speech in Seoul. “Don’t worry about what happened [with the summit] because it may have been too early to celebrate, it is also too early to quit. Never quit.”
His comments came hours before Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters that is a chance the White House and State Department could get the June 12 summit back on track.
“We have got some, possibly some good news on the Korea summit, where it may, if our diplomats can pull it off, may have it back on even,” Mr. Mattis told pool reporters Friday during an honor cordon welcoming Denmark Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen to the Pentagon.
Regarding the White House’s decision to pull the plug on the North Korean talks and the charged rhetoric out of Pyongyang in response to the decision, the Pentagon chief said, “That is a usual give and take, you know, of trying to put together big summits and stuff. The diplomats are still at work.”
Mr. Mattis was made aware of Mr. Trump’s decision to pull out of the potentially historic summit during a phone conversation Thursday morning, said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White, who declined to comment on whether Mr. Mattis spoke to Mr. Trump before or after the decision was made to cancel the meeting.
The Pentagon chief “had been cautiously optimistic” that the landmark summit would proceed, before the White House’s announcement Thursday, Ms. White said. But “this is a dynamic situation, and then [defense secretary] is used to it,” she added.
The seeming optimism coming from the Pentagon and the USFK headquarters stands in contrast to the department’s strong tone a day earlier, saying American troops on the peninsula are “ready to fight tonight” should again rising tensions between Washington and the North Korean regime come to a head, in the wake of the summit’s cancellation.
“We are in a boxer’s stance and ready to respond” to any military provocation from Pyongyang, as part of the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign to bring North Korea to the negotiating table, Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, joint staff director, told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday.
American commanders in Korea and the Pacific have received no orders to increase the threat level facing U.S. forces in the region from North Korea as a result of Thursday’s announcement.
“We did not ramp up or down when word of the summit came” or when news of its cancellation was announced, Gen. McKenzie said.
“We have been very steady” in continuing to execute the military element of the administration’s maximum pressure strategy, he said.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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