In an effort to deter North Korea’s growing threats amid Seoul’s fruitless diplomatic efforts, the United States and South Korea said Thursday that they will begin a massive combined military exercise this month.
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise will take place from August 18 to August 28 and will include “realistic threats, including lessons learned from recent conflicts, to further strengthen the Alliance’s readiness and capabilities through combined, joint, all-domain operations,” according to a joint statement.
The exercise will include connected civil defense drills, computer-simulated command post exercises, and live field movements.
“This iteration of UFS 25 will be executed on a similar scale to the previous iteration,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun stated Thursday during a joint press briefing in Seoul.
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According to Lee, some 18,000 South Korean soldiers will participate. The number of troops involved was not disclosed by U.S. Forces Korea.
The exercise comes as the administration of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is attempting to improve frayed relations with Pyongyang, which frequently condemns the allies’ joint drills as rehearsals for an invasion.
Col. Lee said that roughly half of the 40 planned field training exercises will be rescheduled to next month, but dismissed any political motives behind the decision.
“The military has comprehensively assessed based on multiple factors, including ensuring training conditions due to the recent heat wave, as well as maintaining a balanced ROK-U.S. combined readiness posture … and made the decision to reschedule certain training events to next month,” Lee explained.
“Any training events linked to the combined exercise scenario as well as [those] having any deployed assets or personnel to the Peninsula by the U.S. will proceed as planned,” he said.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield drill would target North Korea, which has deepened military connections with Russia and is still working on its nuclear and missile programs, U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson Col. Ryan Donald stated during the briefing.
