Eighth Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Bernard S. Champoux and TROKA Commander Gen. Kim Hyun-Jip are exchanging gifts with each other to show their strong bond and gratefulness to each other in Yong-in, South Korea, Nov. 7, 2014 (U.S. Army photos by...

YONGIN, South Korea --Third Republic of Korea Army (TROKA) played host to the 2014 TROKA-Eighth Army Alliance Festival at TROKA Headquarters, Yongin, South Korea, Nov. 7, 2014.

This annual festival is to reassure and strengthen the bond between Eighth Army and TROKA, and it has been put to the tradition since 2009.

Hosted by TROKA Commander Gen. Kim Hyun-Jip, the event was attended by Eighth Army's Senior Leaders including Eighth Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Bernard S. Champoux, Eighth Army Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Devens and their staffs.

During his speech, Gen. Kim Hyun-Jip emphasized how great Eighth Army was as the neighbor to Republic of Korea (ROK) Army and the civilians. "64 years ago, when the Korean War broke out, it was Eighth Army who immediately gave South Korea a hand," Gen. Kim Hyun-Jip said.

Champoux considered this event a great chance to strengthen the alliance between U.S. and ROK.

"The strength of the alliance depends on the strength of the program, and TROKA is a very good partner," Champoux said. "This kind of Festival will be a good opportunity for us to bring mutual trust and respect to each other and realize the importance of alliance," he added.

General Kim also emphasized that Eighth Army and TROKA can learn from each other.

"I think we have a lot to learn from General Champoux's leadership, and we are still learning from Eighth Army Officers' ways of conducting strategies," Kim said. "I have a strong belief that we can become the victors even a war unexpectedly breaks out today," Kim added.

As the symbol of the strong alliance between two countries, General Champoux and General Kim exchanged their gifts with each other.

TROKA has been conducting missions on protecting middle, west regions of Korean peninsula including its capital region. TROKA has made major achievements to ROK Army. TROKA found several underground tunnel created by N. Korea. It also has successfully eliminated armed communist guerrillas for six times.

Through this festival, Eighth Army successfully solidified the U.S.-ROK partnership that enhances the interoperability inside the peninsula.