Good morning and Aloha.  Thank you Consul General Lee for inviting me to speak here on this 74^th Anniversary of the start of the Korean War.  Thank you to Lieutenant Governor Luke, the Korean War Veterans Association, members of the Hawaii Congressional delegation, members of the State Legislature, our Korean War veterans, and our Gold Star families.  Thank you to the ROK Consulate for your continued efforts to recognize Korean War veterans during Alliance Day celebrations, during ROK ship visits to Hawaii, and through your various other efforts.  Thank you for all joining us today to honor the fallen of the Korean War.

On this day as mentioned 74 years ago, a day seared into our collective memories, North Korean communist forces launched a brutal surprise attack on the Republic of Korea.  They swept into the stunned capital of Seoul three days later. Seoul residents at the time struggled to process the sudden reality of the North Korean invasion, even as the sounds of combat reached the city, and the communist occupiers greeted the people of Seoul with propaganda, massacres, and the seizure of personal property.  Across the Korean peninsula, the communists unleashed a summer of terror.  Kun Ho-Lee, a survivor of the 90-day communist occupation of Seoul, said afterwards, “Look straight at the revealed evil.  There can be no compromise, no concession.  Here is the clear need for battle.  We may have to sacrifice everything, but only by winning this battle can we keep alive the hope for mankind.”
 
The United States, Republic of Korea, and members of the United Nations answered the call to fight that battle and keep hope alive.  Three months later, we landed together at Incheon and liberated Seoul.  We marched together, as a united force, across the Peninsula and we saved the Republic of Korea.
The price of the conflict was high.  The evidence of that high price surrounds us here today.  Even now, we continue to locate and identify casualties of the Korean War.  Every year, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency searches sites in South Korea to identify additional remains.  Right here in the Punchbowl, DPAA is working to identify unknown Korean War remains with state of the art technology we have today.  One such case is that of Private First Class Thomas Smith. 
 
In the summer of 1950, Private Smith was a member of 2^nd Squad, 3^rd Platoon, Company A, 3^rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 24^th Infantry Division.  In August, his unit engaged in defensive action near Chinju, at the southern end of the Korean peninsula, as part of the defense of Busan.  While they were engaged in combat, Private Smith was reported missing in action.  He was just seventeen years old.  Although numerous Korean War remains were recovered in 1956, they could not be identified with the technology of the time.  This group of unknown remains, along with many others, were sent here to the Punchbowl; where Private Smith’s name is inscribed right behind me in the Courts of the Missing.  After many long decades without closure, his family assumed his body would never be recovered and they gave up hope. 
 
That, however, is not the end of the story.  DPAA experts continue to identify Korean War remains using DNA matching with blood relatives of the missing.  Just last month, DPAA announced the remains of Private Smith have been identified from the unknown Korean War remains here in Punchbowl.  Private Smith’s younger brother John had been waiting for this news since he was 7 years old, which was the last time he saw his brother.  John’s brother will now receive a proper burial beside his relatives in his hometown of Grant, Michigan.  
 
Across our country, thousands of families like Private Smith’s still await identification of missing remains and closure from the Korean War.  We will not rest until we bring them closure.
 
While we work to bring closure to the families of our missing in action from the past, we also continue to work together to provide security, stability, and prosperity for the future.  58,000 Americans gave their lives for the fight for the Republic of Korea, and many more South Koreans.  The alliance between the United States and the ROK is sealed with our shared sacrifices.  Because of this, our alliance is ironclad and unbreakable.  We are ready to fight with the ROK today, tonight, and tomorrow.  We remain ready because winning the struggle between dictatorship and democracy is worth it.
 
If the story of an authoritarian country launching a brutal surprise attack on a neighboring country sounds familiar to you, it should.  Russia is doing it in Ukraine right now.  North Korea is increasingly supportive of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.  Additionally, North Korea continues dangerous and destabilizing behavior on the Korean Peninsula.  Since the beginning of 2023,  North Korea has launched over forty ballistic missiles in violation of United Nations sanctions, including a space launched vehicle carrying a spy satellite just last November. 
 
North Korea has demonstrated several new weapons, including a new intercontinental ballistic missile, short-range ballistic missiles, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, as well as long-range cruise missiles.  Furthermore, North Korea has pledged to build nuclear weapons for tactical use and more advanced delivery systems capable of striking the U.S. homeland. 
 
 Their nuclear and ballistic missile threats aim to preserve its brutal communist regime, extract diplomatic concessions, and obtain prominent international attention.  
 
We stand united with the ROK and we condemn dangerous activities by North Korea which violate international law and threaten to destabilize the region.  We do not seek conflict with North Korea.  We are here to prevent it. 
 

 

 
To prevent conflict, the U.S. Pacific Fleet provides constant, credible, and capable combat power throughout the Indo-Pacific. We have increased our coordination with the ROK in the face of North Korea’s threat, including bilateral and trilateral responses that demonstrate the capability and readiness of our combined forces. 
 
 The United States’ commitment to the ROK and the Korean people is enduring and ironclad, and any attack by North Korea against the ROK will be met with a swift, overwhelming and decisive response.  Our commitment to the ROK is backed by the full range of U.S. capabilities.  Accordingly, we have increased the visibility of our strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula.  Last year was a momentous year in the special alliance between our two countries. 
 
 In 2023, we witnessed the first visit of a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine to the ROK in over forty years.  We witnessed the first B-52 bomber visit to the ROK in thirty years and historic levels of ROK integration in exercises with our allies and partners. 
 
Together, we are building on this momentum in 2024.  ROK operations and activities are deterring North Korea and are a critical part of protecting the sea lines of trade and communication in the greater Indo-Pacific. The growth in the US/ROK bilateral relationship and activities continue to increase. In April, I traveled to Seoul and Busan to personally meet with ROK military leaders, including ADM Kim, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; ADM Yang, the ROK Chief of Naval Operations; and VADM Choi, Commander of the ROK Fleet.  Even as I speak to you today, the THEODORE ROOSEVELT Carrier Strike Group is visiting Busan where just yesterday we were fortunate to have a visit by President Yoon.  Upon departure, the strike group will participate in trilateral, multi-domain exercises with the ROK and Japan.  At the same time, right here on Oahu, the ROK Navy has arrived in Pearl Harbor for RIMPAC.  They have sent two destroyers, a tank landing ship, a submarine, and a company of Marines to join the world’s largest naval exercise.
 
This sort of integration offers a future full of opportunities and endless possibilities.  ROK integration with the U.S. and all of our allies and partners is crucial because it strengthens the rules-based international order and turns benefits to all of us.  That order is based on values and ideals. 
 
It includes preventing the change of borders by force, maintaining freedom of the seas, and prohibitions against the use of weapons of mass destruction.  It is the foundation of the free and open Indo-Pacific.  It is upheld resolutely by the United States and it is a North Star for our allies and partners to rally around. 
 
Today, 74 years after the start of the Korean War, over 28,000 U.S. personnel remain on the Korean Peninsula, ready to fight tonight, as we continue to commit to safeguard the Republic of Korea.  We are now seven decades into our alliance.  Our destinies have been joined in that alliance of values.  Each year, it grows stronger and more capable.  Each year, the cooperation between our militaries and commitment to one another as like-minded nations grows deeper.  Each year, we gather to remember the hardships and sacrifices of the Korean War, and those who fought the war, and we stand on their shoulders.  We owe it to them, and to their legacy, to maintain our commitment to confront the challenges ahead together, and secure a safe, stable, and secure future for our two great nations.  Katchi Kapshida—We go together!  Thank you and Mahalo.