The most recent field training took place as North Korea continued its record pace of weapon testing this year, including Friday’s firing of a short-range ballistic missile and many artillery rounds close to the strongly fortified inter-Korean border. The combined and South Korean military exercises have sparked an angry response from Pyongyang, which has labelled them provocations and threatened retaliation. Seoul claims that its drills are frequent and defense-focused.
Joined by some U.S. forces, the South Korean troops will focus on maintaining readiness and improving the troops’ ability to execute joint operations during the Hoguk drills, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
“The forces will conduct real-world day and night manoeuvres simulated to counter North Korea’s nuclear, missile and other various threats, so that they can master wartime and peacetime mission performance capabilities and enhance interoperability with some U.S. forces,” it said in a statement.
After the North launched a missile, fired more than 500 artillery shells, and flew many aeroplanes close to the prone to conflict maritime border last week, tensions erupted.
Seoul denounced Pyongyang and applied its first unilateral sanctions in over five years, citing the actions as a breach of a bilateral military agreement from 2018 that forbade “hostile measures” along the border. However, the North claimed that the South’s military had increased hostilities by firing artillery of its own.
According to South Korean MPs, the North has finished preparations for what would be its first nuclear test since 2017 and may perform it between the Nov. 7 U.S. midterm elections and China’s important Communist Party conference, which began on Sunday. However, some observers do not anticipate any tests to be conducted before the Chinese Congress finishes.
