The US and South Korean military may be limiting the optics of their military drills — which are viewed as a provocative act to North Korea.
Amid the thaw in relations and upcoming summits between North Korea and the US, news coverage of US-South Korean joint exercises near the North Korean border have been unusually muted.
The two major annual drills — Foal Eagle and Key Resolve — kicked off on April 1, after being postponed for a month for the Winter Olympics in South Korea. One of the exercises, dubbed «Twin Dragon,» concluded on Sunday.
But the news coverage of Twin Dragon has been notably quiet. In previous years, images of drills and public statements from the US and South Korean military were published by both civilian journalists and military public affairs units.
The US announced that the encompassing Foal Eagle and Key Resolve drills will involve a total of 300,000 troops, mostly South Korean but with significant US backing.
But the same details for Twin Dragon were not provided to the public, and civilian news outlets were not allowed to provide coverage, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency .
Some operations were canceled due to bad weather, but so far, images of the drills have been limited to troop movements in preparation for the drills, and not the drill itself.
