South Korea and the United States will begin annual summertime military drills next week to ramp up their capability to counter North Korea’s weapons and cyber threats, officials said on Aug 12.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, set to run from Aug 19 to 29, come as North Korea continues to develop its nuclear and missile programmes and tries to launch reconnaissance satellites.
The drills will reflect “realistic threats” across all domains, including the North’s missile threats as well as GPS jamming, cyber attacks and other lessons learnt from recent incidents, the two countries’ militaries said in a statement.
The alliance “will further strengthen its capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction”, Colonel Lee Sung-jun, spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a briefing.
Col Lee said the South Korean military would also support the simultaneous government-led Ulchi civil defence drills, which will be set in the scenario of a nuclear attack by the North.
About 19,000 South Korean troops, similar to 2023, will take part in 48 rounds of combined field training, including field manoeuvres, live fire and amphibious exercises, he said.
Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesman for US Forces Korea, said the annual exercises were among the largest exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, and will be joined by member states of the United Nations Command.
Pyongyang has long denounced the allies for stoking tensions with military drills, calling them rehearsals for a nuclear war.
Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive and a response to the North’s threats.