Next week, South Korea and the US will begin their annual joint military exercises, Freedom Shield, which the DPRK has sharply criticized. According to the North Korean news agency KCNA, on Friday, the North Korean leadership stated that Seoul and Washington continue to violate the sovereignty and interests of the DPRK and threaten the security of the region.
South Korea will dispatch around 19,000 soldiers for the exercise, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. The allies will conduct 16 large-scale drills, an increase from 10 last year, it said.
KCNA describes these plans as “a military hysteria of the hostile states” that reaches the “most dangerous level” and sets off a new spiral of tension. “The enemies will pay the price for their foolish and reckless war games” as these will force the DPRK to take the harshest measures, KCNA said.
Pyeongyang’s statement came a day after the allies announced that the exercises would begin on Monday and last for 11 days.
The spokesperson of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colonel Lee Sung-jun, explained that the allies will focus on training for measures to cope with the growing nuclear threat from the DPRK, Yonhap reported, without specifying whether the exercise envisions a scenario for the use of atomic weapons by Pyongyang.
During the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, South Korea had given operational control of its troops to the US-led UN command, with the US retaining operational control in the event of war. In 1994, South Korea regained operational control in peacetime.
Ahead of the Freedom Shield exercise, the allies conducted a joint drill with live ammunition near the inter-Korean border on Thursday, Yonhap reported, aiming to demonstrate the firepower of South Korean and US forces against the military threat from Pyongyang.
The exercise took place on the Seungjin firing range in the city of Pocheon, which is only 25 kilometers south of the border with the DPRK, the agency said.
Pyongyang has long condemned the joint military activities of the US and South Korea as a rehearsal for an invasion. Seoul and Washington stated that they will hold the exercises in response to a growing security threat from the DPRK.
Last week, Kim Yo-jong, the deputy director of the department of agitation and propaganda of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, warned of measures as a reaction to the arrival of the USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, in the South Korean naval base of Busan.
Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean state leader Kim Jong-un, described this move as a provocation, part of the confrontational policy of the US against the Pyongyang leadership. “As soon as the new US administration took office, the US intensified its political and military provocations against the DPRK, continuing the hostile policy of the previous administration.”
Koo Byoung-sam, the spokesperson of the South Korean Ministry of Reunification, confirmed that the annual joint military exercise has a defensive character. “North Korea has repeatedly made stubborn claims and shifted the blame for the escalation to others at every joint exercise between South Korea and the US.