SEOUL, March 13 — South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest joint military exercises in five years today, after nuclear-armed Pyongyang warned such drills could...
SEOUL, March 13 — South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest joint military exercises in five years today, after nuclear-armed Pyongyang warned such drills could be seen as a “declaration of war”.
In a rare move, the Seoul military this month revealed that it and Washington special forces were staging “Teak Knife” military exercises — which involve simulating precision strikes on key facilities in North Korea — ahead of Freedom Shield.It has said its nuclear weapons and missile programmes are for self-defence.
“Pyongyang has military capabilities under development it wants to test anyway and likes to use Washington and Seoul’s cooperation as an excuse,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.In a separate statement, North Korea’s foreign ministry said the United States was “scheming” to call a UN Security Council meeting on human rights in the reclusive communist state, to coincide with the joint manoeuvres.
South Korea, for its part, is eager to reassure its increasingly nervous public about the US commitment to so-called extended deterrence, in which US military assets, including nuclear weapons, serve to prevent attacks on allies. This Freedom Shield training is the first since that happened, meaning it “will be very different — both qualitatively and quantitatively — from previous joint exercises that took place in recent years”, he added.
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