SEOUL, Aug. 18 (UPI) — The United States and South Korea kicked off their annual summertime joint military exercise on Monday, amid efforts by Seoul to improve relations with North Korea.
The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which runs through Aug. 28, includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills. Some 21,000 troops will be mobilized, including 18,000 South Korean personnel.
Pyongyang, which routinely condemns the allies’ joint drills as rehearsals for an invasion, last week warned of “negative consequences” and held its own artillery firing contest.
The North will “strictly exercise the sovereign right of the DPRK at the level of the right to self-defense in a case of any provocation going beyond the boundary line,” Defense Minister No Kwang Choi said in a statement.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
The joint exercise comes as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung makes a push to improve inter-Korean relations.
In a speech Friday marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee vowed to “respect” North Korea’s political system and said Seoul would not pursue “unification by absorption.”
“We have no intention of engaging in hostile acts,” Lee said. “Going forward, our government will take consistent measures to substantially reduce tensions and restore trust.”
Among the measures Lee has called for is the restoration of the 2018 inter-Korean military pact, which was suspended in 2024 amid growing hostility between Seoul and Pyongyang.
The pact established buffer zones along the border and included measures such as the removal of some guard posts in the DMZ and the banning of live-fire exercises in certain areas
At a Cabinet meeting Monday, Lee instructed relevant ministries to “prepare for a phased implementation of existing inter-Korean agreements, starting with those that are possible.”
He also chaired a National Security Council meeting and emphasized that Ulchi Freedom Shield is defensive in nature, a presidential spokeswoman said.
The exercise is meant “to protect the lives and safety of our citizens and is not intended to attack North Korea or escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.” Lee said, according to spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung.
Seoul has already made conciliatory gestures since Lee took office in June, such as removing its propaganda loudspeakers from border areas and calling on activists to stop floating balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the North.
Half of Ulchi Freedom Shield’s 44 planned field training exercises have been rescheduled to next month, with U.S. military officials citing a heatwave and flooding damage to training areas as the primary reasons. Local media have reported that the move is also being made in an effort to avoid provoking the North.
A spokesman for Seoul’s Defense Ministry said at a briefing on Monday that there were no plans to suspend live-fire drills near the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea, which has long been a source of dispute with Pyongyang.