The country and the United States will conduct major joint military drills from Aug 17 to 27, incorporating exercises to counter drones, GPS disruption and cyberattacks as they adapt to North Korea’s evolving capabilities, officials said.
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise will test operations and support the South Korean government’s emergency readiness drills, the allies said yesterday in a joint statement.
Colonel Ryan Donald, director of public affairs for the Combined Forces Command, United Nations Command and US Forces Korea, said the exercise reflected the changing character of war, including the growing use of unmanned systems, electronic warfare and cyber operations.
“DPRK soldiers have deployed and fought in Ukraine, and they’ve taken those lessons they’ve learned there and brought them back to North Korea,” said Donald, using the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“That changes the DPRK capability, and our training accounts for that threat,” he said.
The drills were strictly focused on threats to the Korean Peninsula and the defence of South Korea, he added.
About 18,000 South Korean troops will take part, a scale similar to previous years, said Captain Jang Do-young of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
While the allies say the drills are defensive in nature, Pyongyang routinely denounces the military exercise as a provocation that heightens tensions.
North Korea has hardened its stance towards South Korea, revising its constitution this year to remove references to reunification and define its territory as bordering the South. — Reuters
