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| President Moon Jae-in, left, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, right, look at a replica of a section of the Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, May 21, during a groundbreaking ceremony. The U.S. Department of Defense is working on details of how and when U.S. vaccines will be provided to South Korean troops working with U.S. Forces Korea, a Pentagon spokesman said. AP-Yonhap |
The U.S. Department of Defense is working on details of how and when U.S. vaccines will be provided to South Korean troops working with U.S. Forces Korea, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.
U.S. President Joe Biden made a surprise announcement Friday that the U.S. will help fully inoculate all 550,000 South Korean service members, who work closely with U.S. troops in South Korea on a daily basis.
“Obviously we support the president’s direction here to provide the vaccines to our ROK allies,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a press briefing. ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.
“I think we’re still working through the details of how that’s going to occur,” he added.
Kirby said the vaccines will “come out of U.S. stockpiles.”
The United States currently has three FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Biden said the move will strengthen the U.S.-South Korea alliance, but also safeguard U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
“There are 550,000 Korean soldiers, sailors, airmen who work in close contact with the American forces in Korea. We’ll provide full vaccinations for all 550,000 of those Korean forces engaging with American forces on a regular basis, both for their sake, as well as the sake of the American forces,” he said in a joint press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in after their first in-person summit in Washington.
Washington maintains some 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea.
Kirby reiterated the importance of a close relationship between South Korean and U.S. troops.
“Obviously, we’ve talked about this before, but training with our ROK allies is a significant component of our ability to meet our treaty commitments to South Korea,” he said.
“And we constantly assess and review what training events might be best, and execute it in the most effective manner, and we’re going to continue to do that going forward,” he added.
He refused to provide any details when asked if the countries have plans to hold a large-scale joint field exercise.
The countries regularly hold joint military drills, but their exercises have largely been computer-simulated since last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also refused to comment on Seoul’s role in case of a contingency in the Taiwan Strait, only saying that his country remains committed to assisting Taiwan in its self defense. (Yonhap)
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