A former deputy commander of South Korea's First Army said the conditions for training soldiers are "very, very bad," partly because of a high turnover rate in the South Korean military.

In-Bum Chun, the former deputy commander, said he believes it will take the army five years to make a significant improvement in the preparedness of the troops, and it will need the help of the United States in the meantime.

WHITE HOUSE PREPARED FOR NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR TEST DURING PRESIDENTIAL VISIT TO ASIA

"The only worse thing than fighting with allies is fighting without them,” Chun said in a news brief. “We are really at the stage where we need the Americans to help us for the next five years.”

Chun cited a 60% turnover rate in the South Korean army every year and said he knew of troops who had not experienced live fire training in a decade. Live fire training has been deemed crucial for preparing soldiers for war.

“We just can’t manage the kind of level of training that we used to be amazed that others require,” Chun said.

Chun was speaking during a panel at the U.S. Army’s Land Forces Pacific conference in Honolulu. Duyeon Kim, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the situation with Korea is more complicated today than it was five years ago because the world has gotten more complicated.

With the possibility of a nuclear test looming while President Joe Biden is on his Asian trip, the need to "game out" scenarios in which North Korea uses its nuclear weapons has increased, Kim said. She also encouraged European countries and the U.S. to think of ways to deter North Korea from using nuclear weapons. There is also a possibility that North Korea will test an intercontinental ballistic missile instead of a nuclear weapon while Biden is on his trip.

Should North Korea test either weapon, Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said the White House was prepared.

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U.S. Commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, Lt. Gen. Bill Burleson, said the troops facing North Korea are prepared to fight.

“They’re flying reconnaissance aircraft as we speak. They are Patriot crew members. They are artillery batteries and missile batteries that are standing ready to respond within minutes," Burleson said. "There is a network that is in place. They are an Armored Brigade Combat Team. There are all the front-line ROK corps with young men and women standing, looking into North Korea. And despite the challenges that you’ve heard described, they are ready."