The United States and South Korea began their biggest combined military training in years Monday as they heighten their defense posture against the growing North Korean nuclear threat.
The drills could draw an angry response from North Korea.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises will continue through Sept. 1 in South Korea and include field exercises involving aircraft, warships, tanks and potentially tens of thousands of troops.
Ulchi Freedom Shield, which started along with a four-day South Korean civil defense training program led by government employees, will reportedly include exercises simulating joint attacks, front-line reinforcements of arms and fuel, and removals of weapons of mass destruction.
The allies will also train for drone attacks and other new developments in warfare shown during Russia’s war on Ukraine and practice joint military-civilian responses to attacks on seaports, airports and major industrial facilities such as semiconductor factories, according to The Associated Press.
The United States and South Korea in past years had canceled some of their regular drills and downsized others to computer simulations to create space for the Trump administration’s diplomacy with North Korea and because of COVID-19 concerns.
North Korea fired two cruise missiles from the west coast town of Onchon last week, after South Korea and the United States kicked off preliminary training for the exercises.
North Korea has conducted missile tests at an unprecedented pace this year and is ready to conduct its seventh nuclear test at any time, Seoul officials said.
Yoon has said his government is willing to provide economic aid if Pyongyang takes steps toward denuclearization, but North Korea has rebuffed his offer, openly criticizing him.
Seoul's defense ministry has said the allies would stage 11 field training programs, including one at brigade-level - involving thousands of soldiers - this summer.
The United States, South Korea and Japan participated in a recent ballistic missile defence exercise off Hawaii's coast, the first such drills since 2017, when relations between Seoul and Tokyo hit their lowest point in years.
