U.S., South Korea begin large-scale joint military exercise on tense Korean Peninsula

SEOUL, March 4 (UPI) -- The United States and South Korea kicked off an 11-day joint military exercise Monday, defense officials said, including ramped-up field training drills and a focus on countering threats from the nuclear-armed North.

The annual springtime Freedom Shield exercise began as scheduled, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed to reporters. It consists of both computer-simulated and field-based training and will run until March 14. This year's exercise includes 48 joint field drills -- almost twice as many as last year -- including air assault and tactical live-fire and bombing drills.

The exercise comes as tensions remain at the highest point in years on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang has conducted a flurry of weapons tests this year and has ramped up its bellicose rhetoric toward South Korea, labeling Seoul its "principal enemy" last month.

North Korea regularly condemns the allies' joint exercises as rehearsals for an invasion and has used the drills as a pretext for its own missile tests. Freedom Shield is the first joint exercise since North Korea scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean military accord meant to reduce tensions along the border, raising additional concerns over a provocative response from Pyongyang.

At a press briefing last week, U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Isaac Taylor said that the Freedom Shield exercise has always been conducted for training and deterrence purposes.

"Professional militaries train," Taylor said. "The U.S. and ROK have worked together for years to ensure security and stability here on the peninsula. If you look back historically, the exercise has been defensive in nature."

In addition to U.S. and South Korean forces, personnel from 11 other member countries of the United Nations Command are joining the exercise. Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Colombia, France, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand will take part in different capacities, the USFK said.

The U.S.-led UNC plays a key role in maintaining and enforcing the armistice agreement that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, with duties that include controlling DMZ access and communicating with the North Korean military.

Alongside Freedom Shield, the U.S. and South Korean Air Forces began a separate joint air training exercise Monday at Osan Air Base, about 40 miles south of Seoul.

Some 20 aircraft, including Korean F-15K and U.S. F-16 fighter jets, will participate in drills, such as defensive counter-air operations, the South Korean Air Force said in a press release. It will run through Friday and is the first of eight such joint air exercises scheduled for this year.

The United States and South Korea have increased their military cooperation amid growing provocations from North Korea, with expanded drills and the deployment of U.S. assets such as aircraft carriers, a B-52 nuclear bomber and a nuclear ballistic missile submarine to the Korean Peninsula in recent months.