USFK Chief Urges Dispersed Drills Across South Korea

The commander of U.S. Forces Korea has called for South Korean and U.S. troops to conduct military exercises across a broader geographic area, arguing that the allies must adapt their training to the vulnerabilities exposed by the war in Ukraine.

Gen. Xavier Brunson made the proposal during a panel discussion at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington on Monday. His remarks focused on improving allied readiness and deterrence as drones and other modern battlefield technologies make forces concentrated at fixed locations more vulnerable.

Brunson said the two major exercises held each year in Korea largely center on large command posts and argued that the allies need to move beyond that model. He suggested training across the peninsula, from Jeju in the south to Gyeonggi Province near the inter-Korean border, rather than relying on a limited number of established sites.

The approach would emphasize the ability to disperse, move and continue operating during a crisis. Brunson said forces should not remain fixed in place, reflecting a wider military reassessment prompted by the use of drones, surveillance systems and precision weapons in Ukraine. Such capabilities can rapidly identify and threaten headquarters, logistics hubs and other concentrated assets.

The USFK commander also raised the possibility of conducting more training between the allies’ two major annual exercises instead of concentrating preparations around those events. He said USFK recently carried out a strategic exercise without troops in which personnel traveled by helicopter to examine how forces could maneuver across South Korea during a crisis.

Brunson linked the need for adaptation to North Korea’s participation in the war in Ukraine. He warned that North Korean troops deployed there are absorbing lessons from combat and applying that experience to their training and weapons development. He described this as one of the most pressing challenges facing the alliance because Pyongyang’s forces are gaining real battlefield exposure while South Korea and the United States work to improve their own training methods.

The comments point toward a more mobile and geographically distributed exercise structure, although Brunson did not announce a specific timetable or a finalized plan. Any change in the scale or location of joint drills would require coordination between Seoul and Washington and would likely be assessed in the broader context of deterrence on the Korean Peninsula.