While skepticism remains high that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will ultimately give up his nuclear arsenal, the U.S. general who has to be ready to defend against a North Korean attack is breathing easier these days.
“The reduction in tension on the peninsula, it’s palpable,” Gen. Robert Abrams, the four-star commander in charge of U.S., U.N., and South Korean forces, said in Senate testimony Tuesday.
Pressed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-N.Y., on whether North Korea had taken any positive steps to begin the process of denuclearization, Abrams admitted, “We have not observed activity that’s consistent with a full-court press on denuclearization … I’d say the activity we see is inconsistent with that.”
[Related: US Korea commander: North Korea remains a military threat]
Abrams told Senate Armed Services Committee members he would provide them with a more detailed assessment in a closed session but said in his public testimony that North Korea’s lack of “strategic provocation” was enabling “nascent confidence-building measures.”
Abrams noted that as of the time of his appearance before the committee, it had been 440 days since North Korea conducted either a missile or nuclear weapons test and said that as a result, the “chance of mistakes, miscalculation” has been dramatically reduced.
“It certainly beats the alternative of what we were living with in 2017,” Abrams said.
Asked about the prospects for success in the upcoming summit between President Trump and Kim in Vietnam, Abrams called the meeting “a positive sign of continued dialogue.”
