South Korea, US to partially push back field training for key military drills to Sept

Seoul, Aug 7
South Korea and the United States will conduct a major joint exercise this month to strengthen their combined readiness posture, the allies said on Thursday, but added that around half of some 40 planned field training exercises will be rescheduled to next month.

The announcement came amid speculation that the allies may push back some field training tied to the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise until after September as South Korea seeks to mend frayed ties with North Korea.

The UFS exercise is set to take place from August 18-28 and involves drills incorporating "realistic" threats aimed at enhancing the allies' capabilities across all domains, their militaries said.

"The exercise will also support interagency coordination within the ROK government to strengthen national-level crisis management, civil safety response, and cyber defence capabilities, advancing a whole-of-government, joint, intra-agency, and combined approach to wartime readiness and national defence," they said in a statement.

ROK refers to the acronym of South Korea's formal name, the Republic of Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.

Alongside South Korean and US troops, personnel from several member states of the UN Command (UNC) will join the exercise, while the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission will observe the exercise to monitor compliance with the Armistice Agreement.

The UNC is an enforcer of the armistice that halted the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.

This year's exercise comes as North Korea has denounced combined South Korea-US drills and accused the South of "blindly adhering" to its alliance with Washington, amid Seoul's push to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

In response, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, South Korea's top point man on North Korea, said he will propose adjusting the combined military exercise to President Lee Jae Myung, raising views that the allies may possibly push back some field training for the summertime drills.

The North has long denounced the allies' joint exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion against it and has a track record of staging weapons tests in response.

In the statement released Thursday, the allies stressed the upcoming drills are "defensive in nature."