The U.S. focus on Iran has pivoted key resources away from another key geopolitical region — Asia. The U.S. and Iran have blown past a deadline this week to start peace talks. That conflict, which has gone on for months, has sent gas prices soaring in the U.S., and now military resources like warships and interceptor missiles are running short.
That has hurt the U.S. military capabilities in other regions, notably in Asia. PFEIFFER: And we have NPR's Emily Feng with us to explain why. EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Good morning to the both of you.
PFEIFFER: So we heard this week that Trump said the U.S. would reduce joint military exercises with South Korea. He said that within hours of those exercises actually beginning. Is this related to the Iran war?
FENG: According to Trump, yes. He spoke to reporters yesterday and said he had unsuccessfully asked South Korea's president to help the U.S. with its war against Iran. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And I said, wait a minute.
We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran? FENG: As you mentioned, these drills have already kicked off. These exercises go back at least until 1976, and they were designed to largely counter North Korea and its nuclear program.
And I spoke to Hal Brands, a global affairs professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He says North Korea is actually a bigger threat in Trump's second term than in his first. HAL BRANDS: The nuclear program has expanded over the past decade, and the missile arsenal has become larger and more sophisticated.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
