ULCHI FREEDOM SHIELD
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Context: South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military drills since 2017. The drills, called the Ulchi Freedom Shield, are scheduled to run until September 1. They are tri-service drills involving thousands of troops as well as live-fire exercises. North Korea has said these joint drills are a rehearsal of invasion.
Details:
- These drills had been scaled back significantly because of the pandemic, and because South Korea’s former President Moon Jae-in had attempted to restart diplomatic talks with Pyongyang to get it to denuclearise.
- South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk-yeol has a markedly different approach to North Korea in comparison to his predecessor. After taking office in May this year, Yoon had vowed to “normalise” these joint exercises.
- Also, former US President Donald Trump considered these joint military drills as being too expensive and too provocative. He too had tried to reach out to North Korea, and had met the country’s leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore for a summit in 2018
- In addition to these joint drills, South Korea has also started the four-day Ulchi civil defence drills
- Yoon had said these military and civil drills “are aimed at improving the country’s preparedness to match the changing patterns of war, with evolving cyber threats against key facilities such as chip factories and supply chains”.
- The drills will include a rehearsal of scenarios, such as responding to North Korea’s attacks on key industrial facilities including an airport, a semiconductor factory or a nuclear power plant.
- North Korea has conducted an unprecedented number of weapons tests in 2022 and fired more than 30 ballistic missiles this year, marking the largest number of ballistic missiles launched in a single year.
- These joint drills come after North Korea rejected South Korea’s proposals that Pyongyang give up its nuclear capabilities in phases, in return for economic benefits.
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