South Korea has no plans to reduce the scale of an annual joint military exercise with the United States or demand the withdrawal of US troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula, the man set to become Seoul’s chief of Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday.

The Ministry of National Defense announced later in the day that the annual Korea-US Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise will take place between Aug. 21 and 31. The command post drill will be played out on a similar scale to that of last year, when 50,000 South Korean and 25,000 US troops joined.

“We have never considered such measures,” Air Force Gen. Jeong Kyeong-doo said during a parliamentary hearing when asked about whether the military would seek to scale back the military drill or withdraw the US troops to bring about suspension on North Korea’s nuclear and missile program.

His remarks came after Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, on Thursday floated the possibility of a deal between the US and North Korea in which US troops withdraw from South Korea in exchange for a verifiable freeze in the North’s nuclear program.

Speculation has also emerged that the allies may scale back the scope of the upcoming joint military exercise, a proposal earlier made by South Korean president’s special adviser Moon Chung-in, who said South Korea would consult the idea with the US in exchange for the suspension of the North’s nuclear activities.

Though widely dismissed as far-fetched, personal views both in Seoul and Washington, such remarks have alarmed the two countries’ security experts, who suspect that the stationing of 28,000 US troops and its annual drill with the South Korean counterpart have been a successful deterrence against North Korea.

In a parliamentary hearing devoted mostly to the military’s response to North Korea’s escalating nuclear and missile threat, the JCS chairman nominee expressed confidence that South Korea would overwhelm the North in the event of war.

The former Air Force chief predicted that it would take “less than three days” to seize air supremacy over North Korea, suggesting that the allies’ air forces can neutralize the North Korean Air Force and its densely deployed missile defense system.

The general also said although it is “threatening” to see North Korea enhance its asymmetrical capability -- such as nuclear and biological weapons -- South Korea still has military edge over the North, even without the US military presence on the peninsula.

“North Korea has devoted most of their focus on developing nuclear and missile capabilities,” said Jeong. ”I will build the military that brings fear to the enemy and accomplish my mission by uniting our forces.”

The general reiterated that South Korea is working on improving its counter-fire capability against North Korea’s long-range artillery units, which Bannon said would kill ten million people in Seoul in the first 30 minutes of the war.

“I don’t think there is a big problem (in our capability). We are ready to respond,” said Jeong, when asked about whether he agreed with Bannon’s assessment. “We are doing our best to neutralize North Korea by minimizing our sacrifice.”

The lawmakers passed the motion to approve Jeong. If he takes office as scheduled, Jeong will become the second Air Force officer to take the highest active-duty post, which was mostly devoted by the Army generals who have graduated from the elite Army military Academy.

When grilled by conservative opposition lawmakers about the Moon Jae-in administration’ security policy, Jeong defended the president’s initiatives, such as his “phased approaches” toward the North’s nuclear crisis and pledge not to redeploy US tactical nuclear weapon.

“I think we should stick to the principle of denuclearization (on the Korean Peninsula),” he said when asked about lawmakers from the main opposition Liberty Party of Korea, who vowed to push for redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons to prevent against the North’s military threat.

South Korea is banned from developing nukes on its own under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty -- which it signed in 1975. It is also a signatory to several other nonproliferation treaties, including the one that Seoul jointly declared with Pyongyang in 1992.

When asked about how to resolve the North Korean nuclear program, Jeong said he agrees with President Moon’s two-phased approach to resolving the standoff, starting with a freeze on North Korea’s nuclear and missile development followed by complete dismantlement.

”I think it is important for us to use dialogue and pressure the resolve the situation diplomatically. We have to do our best to prevent North Korea from declaring (full nuclear armament),” the Air Force general told the lawmakers.

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)