The U. S.-South Korean exercise, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, occurs annually and will involve about 17,500 U. S. servicemen.
The Pentagon is pressing ahead with plans to conduct a major joint exercise in South Korea next week, a move that threatens to provoke North Korea.
The U. S.-South Korean exercise, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, occurs annually and will involve about 17,500 U. S. servicemen, including 3,000 from outside South Korea, the Pentagon said.
The exercise is “a regularly scheduled, annual exercise and is the culmination of many months of planning, ” Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.
The exercise runs from Aug. 21-31 and is designed to “improve the alliance’s ability to defend” South Korea, where 28,000 U. S. troops are stationed, he said.
It’s not clear what impact the exercises will have on ongoing Trump administration tensions with North Korea, which is rushing to develop nuclear weapons that can strike the U. S. mainland.
The North Koreans traditionally view the military exercise as a rehearsal for an invasion of North Korea, said Michael Madden, an analyst at the U. S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “They always get angry about them, ” Madden said.
It is likely North Korea may attempt to increase the readiness of its forces or issue additional threats in response to the military exercise, said Dean Cheng, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
