The head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command described a worrisome security outlook for the region in which North Korea is unlikely to give up all of its nuclear weapons, China continues to expand its military, economic and political influence across the Pacific and Russia regularly conducts nuclear-capable Tu-95 Bear bomber flights off Japan, South Korea, Canada and Alaska.
A second summit is scheduled between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for Feb. 27-28, this time in Hanoi, Vietnam, but Adm. Phil Davidson said his assessment is consistent with the intelligence community’s position.
“That is, we think it is unlikely that North Korea will give up all of its nuclear weapons or production capabilities, but seeks to negotiate partial denuclearization in exchange for U.S. and international concessions,” Davidson said in a prepared statement ahead of his appearance Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Davidson and Army Gen. Robert Abrams, the new head of U.S. Forces Korea, testified about the security outlook for the region.
The U.S. military needs “urgent change” to address the challenge of strategic competitor China, said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., committee chairman.
“Our military advantage and deterrent edge in the Indo-Pacific is eroding, (and) the Chinese Communist Party leadership in Beijing senses weaknesses,” Inhofe said. “They are testing our resolve, and if we do not act urgently, they may soon conclude that they can achieve their goals through force.”
China is consolidating military power in the South China Sea and is expanding globally — including setting its sights on the Pacific islands that belong to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Palau.
The island nations, which have economic and defense ties with the United States under the Compact of Free Association, or COFA, are seeing growing investment by China.
U.S. funding agreements expire in 2023 and 2024, noted Davidson, whose command is based on Oahu.
“Fact of the matter is that these nations are at risk from the pernicious approach China has taken with (investment) in the region,” Davidson told the panel. “And to prevent that from happening, we should look at the long-term need on those COFA states.”
Without those three countries and the strategic alliance with the United States, “the logistics and sustainment of our operations in the Western Pacific would be severed,” he said.
The Philippines and Guam, a strategic U.S. outpost, could find themselves surrounded by Chinese military. Extensive U.S. military activity on Kwajalein Atoll would be threatened.
Through fear and economic pressure, China seeks to expand its communist-socialist ideology and create a new international order that replaces the U.S.-led “stability and peace of the Indo-Pacific that has endured for over 70 years,” Davidson said.
On Monday two U.S. Navy destroyers sailed near Mischief Reef in the South China Sea, a disputed man-made island China armed with anti-ship missiles. The transit drew a condemnation from China.
Davidson, who was asked about the “saber rattling” and chance for miscalculation, said he’d “like to hold off on the rhetoric that China responds with in the wake of these operations. But I will say this: (In the) vast, vast majority of operations in the South China Sea, China responds professionally and safely.”
Abrams, the U.S. Forces Korea commander, said the scheduling of a second summit between Trump and Kim “is a positive sign of continued dialogue.”
Abrams noted that Tuesday was Day 440 since the last strategic provocation — missile flight or nuclear weapons test — from North Korea. “The reduction in tension on the peninsula, it’s palpable,” Abrams said.
