S Korea, US to Hold Joint Military Drills

By Staff, Agencies

South Korea and the United States will press ahead with large-scale military drills later this month despite North Korea threatening to take “unprecedentedly” strong action against such exercises.

The South Korean and US militaries will conduct military exercises from March 13 to 23 to strengthen their combined defensive capabilities, the two militaries said in a statement on Friday.

The exercises mark the longest edition of the exercises dubbed “Freedom Shield”, which according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency will involve a “joint computer-simulation command post exercise” that runs concurrently with a field training exercise, called “Warrior Shield”.

“Freedom Shield is designed to strengthen defense and response capabilities of the Alliance by focusing within the exercise scenario on things such as the changing security environment, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [DPRK] aggression and lessons learned from recent wars and conflicts,” the joint statement said.

Previous joint military exercises have drawn sharp reactions from North Korea, including missile launches and nuclear threats, and it is likely that Pyongyang will respond to Freedom Shield with provocative missile tests and belligerent rhetoric.

On Friday, the two militaries also conducted a combined air drill with at least one American B-1B long-range bomber and South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter aircraft, South Korea’s ministry of defense said in a statement.

Such exercises have in the past drawn sharp reactions from North Korea, including missile tests and nuclear threats.