South Korea restores military drills once reduced to help Trump

South Korea will bring back joint military exercises with the U.S. that had been scaled down or halted since about four years ago under former President Donald Trump to facilitate his nuclear negotiations with North Korea.

The government of President Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who took office in May on pledges of bolstering military ties with the U.S. and taking a tough line with Pyongyang, will resume combined field training drills with American troops, the Defense Ministry in Seoul said in a policy report Friday.

The two will also restore exercises that include training with aircraft carrier groups and amphibious vehicles. The sides will return to practicing war scenarios in person, replacing training over the past three years that used computerized commandand-control simulations, it said.

The allied forces will conduct 11 joint field exercises in August and September, including a large-scale drill at the Korea Combat Training Center, and change the name of the annual drill from Ulchi Freedom Guardian to Ulchi Freedom Shield, the military said.

Yoon warned Friday that North Korea could soon ratchet up tensions with its seventh nuclear test, after firing off ballistic missiles at a record pace this year. Any display of the weapons in leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear arsenal would serve as a reminder of the pressing security problems posed by Pyongyang that have simmered as Biden’s administration focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We believe North Korea is prepared to conduct a nuclear test any moment they decide to do so,” Yoon said, adding he has discussed the matter with the U.S.

Satellite imagery indicated that refurbishment work and preparations at Tunnel No. 3 at Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility, where North Korea has conducted all six of its nuclear tests, are complete and ready for another detonation of a nuclear device, the Beyond Parallel website said in mid-June.

The moves from Seoul comes less than a week before the 69th anniversary of the July 27 signing of the armistice agreement that ended fighting in the 1950-1953 Korean War. The U.S. still has about 28,500 troops in South Korea and military leaders from the two countries have said drills are essential to prepare for any provocations by North Korea. The north positions large portions of its million-man military near the border drawn up when the cease fire took hold.