The liberal government of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is determined to regain wartime operational control — OPCON Transfer — of South Korean troops from the U.S. by 2030. Experts warn the move will kill the existing joint command structure between U.S. and South Korean forces and possibly trigger reductions in America’s only footprint on the Asian mainland.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports from Seoul on the uncertain future of Camp Humphreys, America’s biggest overseas military base, located 40 miles south of the South Korean capital. The base, which is home to most of the more than 28,000 American troops stationed in South Korea, provides key command, training and depot facilities to soldiers tasked with deterring North Korea. Along with two sister installations on South Korea’s Yellow Sea coast, it also offers America a proximate eye on China.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul addressed these knotty issues in the Philippines on Wednesday on the sidelines of a regional defense forum. The two agreed that an annual bilateral dialogue, the Security Consultative Meeting, expected in December, would be postponed to early 2027 to give negotiators time to find common ground.

Mr. Vance’s letter to Iranian leaders, sent this week via Qatari mediators, proposed that he will lead a new U.S. delegation to resume direct peace negotiations with Tehran. Sources say the letter, which comes as President Trump continues to threaten a resumption of U.S. air strikes on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections next week, emphasized any new direct talks must focus on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said they won’t consider ending the war with the U.S. until Washington releases $12 billion in frozen assets, lifts the naval blockade, eases sanctions, removes forces from the Middle East, pays war reparations and stops all hostile rhetoric. However, Iranian state media reported this week that Tehran had received Mr. Vance’s letter addressed to Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei and that leaders in Tehran are crafting a response.

Direct negotiations between Iran and the U.S. haven’t taken place for months following the disintegration of the Pakistani-brokered Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement, which outlined a ceasefire and provided a 60-day window for negotiations, fell apart after Iran began attacking commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Army Gen. Ronald P. Clark, commander U.S. Army forces in the Pacific, warned in public remarks this week that China has set April 2 as a potential date for invading Taiwan. The danger of a People’s Liberation Army large-scale attack was first disclosed to Congress in 2021 testimony from then-commander of all forces in the Pacific, Adm. Philip Davidson, who revealed China was building up military forces for a cross-Taiwan Strait assault by April of 2027.

The resulting six-year timeframe became known as the “Davidson window,” said Gen. Clark, who was chief of staff to Adm. Davidson and helped prepare his March 2021 Senate testimony revealing the threat. “So the question is, is the window still valid? The answer for us at [U.S. Army Pacific] is yes,” Gen. Clark said Tuesday after a speech to TechNet Indo-Pacific, a defense conference in Hawaii.

“There are 157 days between today and the 2nd of April,” he said. “So that mark on the wall for us and our headquarters is to ensure that we are in position postured forward to deter war in a window in which our adversary may find it to their advantage to attack Taiwan.” His comments came as Mr. Hegseth met with U.S. allies in the Philippines this week, pushing a message that the U.S. remains focused on China and specifically the region around Taiwan, despite the ongoing war with Iran.

The U.S. Justice Department is now investigating the case of Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, who was fired this week by Mr. Hegseth for allegedly leaking classified information to reporters about the U.S. operation against Iran and the war between Russia and Ukraine.

A Pentagon official told Threat Status on Thursday that Gen. Sylvia failed three polygraph tests when he was questioned during the investigation into the leaks.

The development coincides with ongoing tension between Mr. Hegseth and U.S. news outlets that cover the American military. Mr. Hegseth circulated a video in July announcing a joint Pentagon-Justice Department task force to “identify and prosecute leakers.” The defense secretary himself was caught up in a leak incident roughly a year ago, in which The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to an encrypted chat about U.S. plans to bomb Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.

The Trump administration’s recent decision to appoint Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead the U.S. government’s AI initiative is a “propitious step forward” that “makes good sense for our national security and economic future,” writes retired CIA clandestine services officer Daniel N. Hoffman.

“We have significant legislation to write and pass, and much executive policy planning to do, to ensure that we maximize the commercial and military benefits of AI’s learning, problem-solving and decision-making — while minimizing its risks to our national security,” writes Mr. Hoffman, a Washington Times opinion columnist and regular contributor to Threat Status. 

“AI can be a powerful force multiplier for the intelligence community by quickly and efficiently collecting and analyzing massive amounts of information, and by automating labor-intensive intelligence analysis, including satellite imagery and cyber defense,” he writes. “Yet adversaries can also use AI to enhance their own cyberattacks on our infrastructure and direct long-range drones at civilian and military targets.”

• Nov. 2 — AI Power and National Security Conference: Open Models, Governance, and US-China Military Competition, Hudson Institute

• Nov. 10 — China, America, and the Fragmentation of the Global Economy: A Conversation with Aaron Friedberg, American Enterprise Institute

• Nov. 10 — 2026 Homeland Security Summit, Potomac Officers Club

• Nov. 16 — The Black Sea Blueprint for Taiwan: Lessons in Asymmetric Naval Warfare, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• Nov. 17 — Special Threat Status Event: The Golden Age of Space, Threat Status

• Nov. 18 — Rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom and Reindustrializing America, Hudson Institute

• Nov. 20-22 — Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada, HFX