US troops in S. Korea must be ready for missions beyond peninsula, commander says

Lt. Gen. Joe Hilbert, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army in South Korea, emphasized the need for his troops to be prepared for missions beyond the Korean peninsula if directed to do so. He stressed that it would be irresponsible to concentrate solely on threats in the region. While the Eighth Army's primary focus is fulfilling U.S. commitments under the mutual defense treaty with South Korea, Hilbert clarified that their location does not restrict the missions they can carry out.

He argued that it would be irresponsible to suggest the Eighth Army cannot do other things simply because of its presence in Korea. Describing the Eighth Army as part of a global force trained for readiness to deploy wherever needed by national command authority, Hilbert pointed to the Eighth Army's involvement in multinational exercises across the Asia-Pacific as evidence of its activities beyond the peninsula.

He emphasized that readiness is largely threat-agnostic, meaning that a trained, ready force capable of executing the Army's assigned missions can be deployed to any location as needed.