South Korea-US South Korea, US to hold scaled back military exercises
Washington/UNI: South Korea and the United States announced the beginning of their annual military exercises from Monday, the South Korean army announced on Sunday, adding that the joint drill will be smaller than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The nine-day war games will be a “computer-simulated command post exercise”, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Sunday, stressing that the exercise is “strictly defensive” in nature, Al Jazeera reported.
There will be no outdoor manoeuvres, as they have been carried out throughout the year, while the number of troops and equipment will be minimised due to the pandemic.
Though scaled back, the combined exercises are still likely to infuriate North Korea which has often called them a “rehearsal for war”.
The JCS said South Korea and the US decided to move forward with the military drill after “comprehensively taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation, the maintenance of the combat readiness posture, the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace”.
It added that part of the drill will involve preparation for the full operational capability test, which is necessary for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the US to South Korea.
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