Conflict over Taiwan could expand, says LaCamera

Gen. Paul LaCamera salutes the U.S. flag during his swearing-in ceremony as United States Forces Korea (USFK) commander at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi on July 2. [YONHAP]

The commander of the U.S. military on the Korean Peninsula suggested at a virtual conference that a crisis over Taiwan could have wide-ranging consequences for his forces as well as South Korea's military.

Speaking at an online symposium hosted by the Washington-based Institute for Corean-American Studies on Monday, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander Gen. Paul LaCamera was asked what role Seoul would play as an ally in the event of any Taiwan-related crisis.

LaCamera declined to go into specifics but noted that “what starts locally becomes regional and global pretty quickly.”

“I think that’s what we’ve learned in the last couple of years with, whether it's Ukraine or whether it’s Covid or other things that have occurred,” LaCamera said.

The USFK commander said it is always “prudent” to look at “second- and third-degree” consequences of events, while emphasizing that his job “is to defend the Korean Peninsula and to maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia.”

Since the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine, whose legitimacy as a sovereign state was previously denied in an essay by Russian President Vladimir Putin arguing that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people” divided by foreign plots, concerns have grown over a potential attack on Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims.

While saying that it prefers to bring Taiwan under its control peacefully, Beijing has refused to rule out using force should the island undertake formal steps to assert or declare its independence.

China conducted massive military exercises in the waters surrounding Taiwan in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit in early August, highlighting its ability to enforce a naval and air blockade around the island.

During the conference, LaCamera also spoke on the wide-ranging nature of the threat from North Korea, warning that it was not limited to nuclear weapons and missiles, but also included its ability to wage informational and cyber warfare.

“[North Korea’s] information operations spread misinformation, disinformation and mal-information and propaganda around the world, and it uses cyber operations to conduct espionage and generate revenue for the regime,” the USFK commander said.

LaCamera said it was crucial that South Korea and the United States be able to counter these offensive capabilities to maintain stability in the region.

“Deterring the DPRK and assuring Korean people requires a whole-of-government approach incorporating all the elements of government power, diplomatic, information, military, economic, intelligence, law enforcement,” he said, referring to the North by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, noting that he would “add in technology as an element of power for our governments.”

The USFK commander also emphasized Seoul and Washington’s common interest in maintaining a “rules-based” international order, which he contrasted with a vision for a world shaped by “coercion, intimidation and threats” that he argued is shared by Pyongyang, Beijing and Moscow.

“Our alliance seeks a rules-based order founded on cooperation,” LaCamera said, urging South Korea and the United States to “remain vigilant against threats to the international rules-based system that has made [South] Korea so prosperous.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]