US and South Korea begin major summer military exercises

The annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercises between the two countries will last until 29 August and take place amid growing concern in Seoul and Washington over the ongoing development of weapons by the DPRK, which has already conducted 37 ballistic and cruise missile tests since the beginning of this year and regularly carries out ‘junk’ attacks on South Korean territory.

According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, this year's maneuvers are based on a full-scale war scenario and include computer-based command and control training simultaneous field maneuvers, and training of civil defense units.

Planned manoeuvres

Although the exercise will be similar in scale to last year's, it will involve around 19,000 South Korean troops. They will include 48 field training events, such as amphibious landings and live-fire exercises The number of brigade-level exercises will also increase to 17 this year.

According to the military, the joint exercises will strengthen the allies' ability and readiness to respond to any provocations and defend themselves against North Korea's weapons of mass destruction by using various types of forces and means, including land, sea, air, cyber, and space.

This year's traditional training of civil defense units will for the first time include a scenario simulating a nuclear attack by North Korea, which the military will not practice.

US and South Korean exercises

Last week, it was reported that the United States and South Korea were planning to hold joint large-scale annual exercises to counter the threats posed by the DPRK.

Earlier, in April, the United States and South Korea conducted joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan to improve their skills in deterring maritime security threats and ensuring safe navigation amid DPRK threats.

South Korea and the United States also conducted joint space exercises to counter North Korea's global positioning system (GPS) jamming and other space threats.