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The South Korean and U.S. militaries said Friday they’ll go ahead with large-scale annual military drills later this month despite North Korea’s threats to take “unprecedently” strong action against such training.
It’s likely that North Korea will respond to the upcoming South Korean-U.S. exercises with provocative missile tests and belligerent rhetoric because it views them as an invasion rehearsal.
In a joint press conference, the South Korean and U.S. militaries said they will conduct the Freedom Shield exercise, a computer-simulated command post training, from March 13-23 to strengthen their defense and response capabilities.
They said the training would focus on North Korean aggression, lessons learned from recent conflicts and the changing security environment.
“The Korea-U.S. alliance will prepare for the FS (Freedom Shield) training while maintaining a firm readiness against potential provocations by the North Korean military,” said Col. Lee Sung Jun, a spokesperson at the South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Lee said the allies would respond to possible North Korean provocations with “an overwhelming capability.
