International Courant
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and the US will start their annual joint navy workout routines subsequent week, with a give attention to bettering their mixed capabilities to discourage and defend towards the rising North Korean nuclear risk, the allies stated Monday.
The workout routines may provoke an aggressive response from North Korea, which has portrayed them as invasion rehearsals and has used the allies’ navy cooperation as a pretext to promote the event of nuclear weapons and missile methods.
South Korean and U.S. navy officers stated this yr’s Ulchi Freedom Defend train, scheduled for Aug. 19-29, will embody computer-simulated drills designed to spice up readiness towards threats akin to missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks, and simultaneous subject maneuvers and live-fire workout routines.
Specifically, the allies wish to additional strengthen their means and posture to discourage and defend towards weapons of mass destruction, navy officers stated at a joint information convention.
Lee Sung Joon, spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Employees, stated about 19,000 South Korean troops will participate within the drills, which he described as a “very important component in sustaining a powerful protection place to guard the Republic of Korea,” utilizing South Korea’s official title.
Ryan Donald, a spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea, declined to touch upon the variety of U.S. troops taking part within the workout routines and stated he couldn’t instantly affirm whether or not the drills would come with U.S. strategic belongings. The US has in latest months elevated its regional deployment of long-range bombers, submarines and provider strike teams to coach with South Korean and Japanese belongings in a present of pressure towards the North.
“This train will mirror sensible threats in all domains, such because the missile threats posed by the Democratic Individuals’s Republic of Korea, and we are going to draw classes from latest armed conflicts,” Donald stated, utilizing the North’s formal title.
“ROK and U.S. items will conduct mixed subject coaching workout routines in all domains. Subject maneuvers and stay hearth workout routines will strengthen alliance interoperability whereas demonstrating our mixed capabilities and resolve,” he stated.
Along with the navy workout routines with the US, the South Korean navy may even assist the nation’s civil protection and evacuation workout routines from Aug. 19 to 22. These workout routines will embody applications based mostly on North Korean nuclear assault situations, Lee stated.
Hostility on the Korean Peninsula is excessive as North Korean chief Kim Jong Un continues to make use of Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine as a method to speed up weapons improvement, whereas making verbal threats of nuclear battle to Washington and Seoul.
In response, South Korea, the US and Japan have expanded their joint navy workout routines and sharpened their nuclear deterrence methods, which depend on US strategic belongings.
Throughout final yr’s Ulchi Freedom Defend workout routines, North Korea performed ballistic missile assessments that it described as simulation of nuclear assaults of the “scorched earth” on South Korean targets.
The North has additionally flown in latest weeks 1000’s of balloons transporting waste south in a weird psychological warfare that has additional soured relations between the war-torn rivals.
South Korea’s navy stated Monday that the North launched about 240 balloons over the weekend, however that solely 10 landed within the South, all in areas north of the capital Seoul. These balloons carried paper waste and plastic bottles, and no hazardous supplies had been discovered, the South’s joint chiefs stated.
It was the primary time since July 24 that North Korea flew balloons towards the South, with a minimum of one among them carrying trash. fell on South Korea’s presidential complicatedwhich raised issues concerning the vulnerability of key South Korean amenities. The balloon contained no hazardous materials and nobody was injured.
Additionally on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol nominated presidential safety chief Kim Yong-hyun, one among his closest confidants, as protection minister. Kim will substitute Shin Gained-sik, who was chosen as Yoon’s new nationwide safety adviser, the presidential workplace stated.
As a Cupboard nominee, Kim is topic to a parliamentary listening to, although Yoon can appoint him even when lawmakers object. Yoon, a conservative, has struggled to push his agenda by means of the opposition-controlled Nationwide Meeting. Liberals have typically criticized Yoon’s nationwide safety insurance policies as hawkish and known as for stronger efforts to revive dialogue with the North.
South Korea, US to start summer season navy workout routines subsequent week to counter North Korean threats
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