US-S. Korea drills amid North thaw
seoul — The United States and South Korea announced on Tuesday that their annual joint military drills will go ahead next month, but the main exercise will be shortened by a month as a diplomatic thaw with North Korea gathers pace.
No aircraft carrier will take part in the large-scale exercises that involve tens of thousands of troops and which are a perennial source of tension between the two Koreas, with Pyongyang condemning them as provocative rehearsals for an invasion of the North.
With talks under way to set up a North-South summit, followed by a proposed face-to-face meet between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, there was speculation that this year’s drills might be scaled back to avoid derailing the discussions. A Seoul defence ministry spokesman confirmed the main exercise, expected to resume on April 1, would be truncated.
“The Foal Eagle exercises will be held for a month in April due to a delay caused by the Olympics and as each military has its own schedule,” the spokesman told Last year the drills were conducted for two months through March to April.
This year’s exercises had already been delayed to avoid clashing with the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South last month.
“Foal Eagle” is a series of field training exercises with approximately 11,500 US service personnel taking part, together with 290,000 South Korean troops, while “Key Resolve” is a tabletop exercise using mainly computerbased simulations.
According to a senior South Korean envoy, Kim had made it clear he “understands” the need for the drills to go ahead. Such an acknowledgement is in stark contrast to the Kim regime’s denunciations of the exercises in the past. —
11,500 US service personnel, along with 290,000 South Korean troops will take part in drills