During his visit to the wartime command post of the ROK-US Combined Forces Command (CP-TANGO) on August 23, Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup stressed that “this joint exercise aims to protect freedom, human rights, and the rule of law, the values which President Yoon is focused on, and in that regard, today’s joint exercise means a lot.”

Lee checked the combined defense posture and visited the wartime command post to encourage the soldiers of the two countries who are striving to successfully complete the ROK-US ‘Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS)’ exercise.

After being briefed on the situation of the UFS exercise, Lee clarified that the goal of the joint exercise is to enhance the capability to implement the ROK-US combined operations. Lee also asked the soldiers of the two countries to “work shoulder to shoulder and focus on the exercise, in order to establish a ‘Fight Tonight’ combined defense posture, improve the capacity to implement the combined operations and interoperability by concentrating themselves on the situation during the exercise period, and verify and supplement the operation plan.”

“The two sides need to come together as one team in accordance with the meaning of ‘Combined,’ and based on this, need to advance their capabilities to implement the combined operations,” Lee added. Just as the word 'combined' implies, he stressed that the military forces of the two countries need to unite into one by maintaining a strong bond with each other.

Lee also encouraged the soldiers of the two countries who are committed to the UFS exercise, saying “a firm ROK-US combined defense posture forms the backbone of the ROK-US alliance, and you are genuine heroes and a symbol of the ROK-US alliance.”

Significantly, Lee asked the soldiers to devote themselves to strengthening human capabilities, stressing that “despite the importance of the advanced weapons system, it is humans, such as commanders, staff, and soldiers, who play a decisive role in deciding the outcome of the war.” Ending his words of encouragement, Lee quoted a line from the film ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ “It’s not the plane, It’s the pilot,” and shook hands warmly with each of the soldiers of the two countries.

CP-TANGO is a land-sea-air theater of operations command center in the Korean Peninsula area, which serves as the heart of the ROK-US joint forces in emergency situations. CP-TANGO also serves as a control tower in the second-half UFS joint exercise which started on August 22. Military forces of the two countries plan to dramatically beef up their capabilities to implement the combined operations by conducting thirteen different types of joint field training exercises (FTX) and a computer simulation based command post exercise (CPX) until the first of next month.