USAF Keeps Its Forces in Korea at Maximum Readiness to Deter a Belligerent and Aggressive North
KEEPING PEACE in Korea By Amy McCullough, News Editor USAF keeps its forces in Korea at maximum readiness to deter a belligerent and aggressive North. USAF photo by SSgt. Nick Wilson Airmen perform prelight checks on an F-16 at Kunsan AB, South Korea, during Beverly Midnight 16-3, a readiness exercise to ensure security on the Korea peninsula. 34 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2016 H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM n just a few short decades, South Despite the significant economic, tech- Although its aircraft are mostly hold- Korea, once one of the poorest coun- nological, and military progress, the Ko- overs from the Korean War, “they have tries in the world, has pulled itself rean War between the democratic south a lot of them and quantity is a quality out of poverty and transformed into and the unstable, dynastic communist all of its own,” said Col. Rob Bortree, an economic powerhouse. regime in North Korea never actually commander of the 607th Air Operations IOften called the “Miracle on the Han,” ended. For 63 years the Korean Peninsula Center at Osan. referring to the major river that runs has operated in a state of armistice—not The underground facilities create ad- through Seoul, South Korea now boasts the war, not peace. ditional problems because if a crisis were world’s 13th largest economy and is one to arise US and South Korean forces of the most wired countries on the planet. REAL, NEAR, PERSISTENT would first have to find the weapons and Of its roughly 51 million people, nearly The armistice helps maintain stability then figure out how to attack, Bortree half live in the greater Seoul metropolitan in the region, but North Korea is a very pointed out.
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