US, South Korea to skip Vigilant Ace drill to support denuclearisation

United States and South Korea are expected to again skip their yearly winter air drill as they did last year in order to extend support to the present denuclearization talks with North Korea, according to a source. As mentioned by the South Korean News Agency, there is a mutual understanding among the military forces of the two countries to delay the Vigilant Ace air exercise which is scheduled to take place in the month of December. The News Agency cited a source saying that the final decision will be taken during the annual defence talks between both the nations. 

The United States and South Korea to conduct separate air drills.

It is revealed that both the countries might consider engaging in separate air drill in December. According to the reports, there has been a decline in several engagements between Seoul and Washington since last year in order to catalyze the peace efforts with North Korea. The efforts from both the countries are to avoid any escalation or provocation of Pyongyang, that has condemned the rehearsals for a war of invasion. 

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The Vigilant Ace drill

The Vigilant Ace drill was started in 2015 and was initially known as Pen-ORE (Peninsula Operational Readiness Exercise). The exercise was held annually until 2017. During the drill, several military combat aircraft were mobilized from the allies. But during 2017, the allied nations were reported to have mobilized 270 aircrafts in retaliation to the show of force by North Korea where it launched several nuclear and missile armaments. It is also expected that the two nations will engage in a dialogue regarding the postponement of the Air-drill exercise when they will meet in mid-November. There have been several efforts to denuclearize the Korean region which involved several rounds of negotiations between the United States and North Korea. But the bilateral talks between the two nations have not made much progress. 

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North Korea’s successful nuclear launch 

On the other hand, North Korea stated on November 1, that it had fired and successfully tested a new super-large multiple rocket launcher and added that the tests expanded the country's capability to tackle enemy targets in attacks that come as a surprise. The latest testing of multiple rocket launcher comes after two tests in the month of August and September. These tests come after North Korea was seen expanding its military capabilities.

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