South Korea and the US will begin annual military drills next week
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean and U.S. troops will begin their large annual joint military drills next week to enhance their readiness against North Korean threats, the South Korean military said Thursday, days after North Korea threatened high-profile provocations against what it called escalating U.S.-led aggression.
The South Korean and U.S. forces will take part in the Freedom Shield exercise, a computer-simulated command post training, and related field exercises from Monday to March 20, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff in a statement.
The statement said the Freedom Shield exercise will involve responses to evolving challenges like North Korea’s growing military partnership with Russia.
North Korea views major South Korean-U.S. military training as an invasion rehearsal and often responds with missile tests and fiery rhetoric.
It hasn’t responded to the announcement, but earlier this week, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused the U.S. of intensifying confrontational actions and threatened to ramp up measures “threatening the security of the enemy at the strategic level.” She cited the recent temporary deployments of U.S. strategic assets like an aircraft carrier and long-range bombers in South Korea and other U.S.-involved military activities.
Observers say North Korea could test-fire powerful nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike the U.S. mainland and American military bases in the region.
Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, President Donald Trump has said he would reach out to Kim Jong Un again to revive diplomacy. North Korea hasn’t directly responded to Trump’s outreach as it argues U.S. hostilities against it has deepened since Trump’s inauguration.
Kim Jong Un and Trump met three times in 2018-19 to discuss how much economic and political benefits North Korea would receive in return for its nuclear disarmament. But their diplomacy eventually fell apart after Trump rejected Kim’s offer to dismantle his main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step, in exchange of extensive sanctions relief.
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press
