US, South Korea to begin scaled down annual joint military exercises

On August 15, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Park Han-ki met said in a statement that the US and South Korea will begin annual joint military exercises this week. The two nations halted the defense training program comprised of computer-simulated war scenarios and invasion rehearsals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The military drills are expected to commence by August 28 and come in the backdrop of US President Trump’s cost-sharing agreement for 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea against North Korean war threats. 

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville arrived in South Korea on August 14 and conducted assessments of the security situation in a meeting, according to reports. In an official statement, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged for the US Army's contribution to the defense of the Korean Peninsula, while McConville pledged the US continued commitment of service to South Korea. 

As per a news agency report, North Korea’s Kim Jong had earlier warned that his country would abandon the missile diplomacy and nuclear negotiations if the US continued “hostile policies” in the Korean peninsula. North Korea ratifies the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), that has signatories across the globe committed to suspending nuclear weapons and technology deployment in wars and promote peaceful cooperation on nuclear armament. Earlier this year, in January, Kim was reported making bitter comments in the state media, saying, Pyongyang had “no intention” of denuclearization in an address to a plenum of the ruling Workers Party Central Committee.  

In 2019, South Korean and US militaries announced that they were suspending the annual joint military drills due to the COVID-19 that at least 22 South Korean soldiers at the armed forces facilities had contracted. The virus prompted many troops to undergo quarantine and forced the base facilities to shut down, according to state media reports. In a joint news conference, South Korean military chief Park Han-ki said that the military exercises with the US were postponed until further notice in view of troops' safety. Commander of the US military in South Korea, Robert Abrams had reportedly accepted South Korea's defense ministry's proposal.

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Exercises for wartime operational control

However, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff on August 15 announced that the combined command post and field training will resume this week to prepare the forces for the war-like scenario, especially with North Korea. Han-ki Met did not disclose the exact number of troops. It is, however, speculated by several reports that the two countries will commence training in a scaled-back manner, and soldiers that will participate will be limited to smaller count compared to last year. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reportedly said that the drill will involve maintaining the joint defense posture and practice run of the future combined command structure after wartime operational control.

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