South Korea and the US will kick off a major combined military exercise next week to beef up their joint defense, the allies announced Monday, amid evolving prospects of North Korea’s new provocations, Yonhap News Agency reported. The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise based on an all-out war scenario is set to take place from Aug. 21-31, featuring various contingency drills, such as the computer simulation-based command post exercise, concurrent field training and Ulchi civil defense drills, according to the report.
“Ulchi Freedom Shield 23 is designed to be a tough and realistic exercise to strengthen the combined defense posture and alliance response capabilities based on scenarios that reflect diverse threats within the security environment and lessons learned from recent wars and conflicts,” the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a press release. The exercise also includes drills on responses to cyberattacks and terrorism, it added.
Aside from South Korean and US participants, personnel from member countries of the UN Command will join the exercise. The Command is a key enforcer of the armistice that halted the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.
In the lead-up to the drills, Pyongyang has ratcheted up tensions with leader Kim Jong-un having recently called for a “drastic boost” in the country’s missile production capability and for war contingency preparations in an “offensive” manner.
Source: Kuwait News Agency