South Korea, U.S. to restore joint military field drills next month

SEOUL, July 22 (UPI) -- South Korea will resume joint military field exercises with the United States next month, its defense ministry said Friday, as Seoul continues to boost its military relationship with Washington in the wake of growing missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.

Joint drills slated for Aug. 22-Sept. 1 will combine computer simulation-based command post training, field maneuvers and civil contingency drills under a new name, Ulchi Freedom Shield.

"We will fundamentally strengthen the South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture by normalizing combined exercises that have been canceled, postponed, reduced or adjusted for a considerable period of time," the defense ministry said in a policy report presented to President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday.

Seoul and Washington scaled back their joint drills in 2018 during a period of diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang under the administrations of U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

However, Yoon has taken a harder line against North Korea and at a May summit with U.S. President Joe Biden the allies agreed to ramp up military exercises. Biden also confirmed that Washington would "deploy strategic U.S. military assets in a timely and coordinated manner as necessary."

South Korea and the United States staged their first-ever joint drills with F-35A stealth fighter jets last week.

The two militaries will also conduct "outdoor maneuver training above the regiment level, such as combined [aircraft] carrier strike group training and combined amphibious training," the South Korean defense policy report said.

Seoul and Washington plan to hold 11 combined field training sessions between August and September, including a brigade-level program at the Korea Combat Training Center. In the first half of next year, the allies will conduct 21 combined exercises including anti-submarine drills.

The defense ministry report also called for the early deployment of a rocket-defense system to protect the Seoul metropolitan area from long-range artillery attacks by North Korea.

Pyongyang has conducted a spate of missile launches this year and is poised for its seventh nuclear test, officials in Washington and Seoul have warned for several weeks.

Yoon told reporters Friday that North Korea is "fully ready and able to do [a nuclear test] whenever it decides," according to Yonhap.