South Korea-U.S. Combined Exercise Begins Today
Focus on Evaluating Wartime Operational Control Transfer Conditions Until March 19
Starting March 9, the South Korean and U.S. military authorities will begin the 'Freedom Shield' (FS) exercise, which is a theater-level South Korea-U.S. combined drill designed to prepare for contingencies on the Korean Peninsula.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on March 9, this year’s FS exercise, which will run through March 19, incorporates realistic threats and lessons learned from recent warfare scenarios into its scenario analysis. Particularly, as South Korea and the U.S. are accelerating the transition of wartime operational control (OPCON), the exercise is also expected to focus on evaluating and verifying whether the conditions for OPCON transfer are being met.
This year’s FS exercise will involve approximately 18,000 troops, a similar level to last year. However, the number of field training exercises (FTX), which involve actual troop movements during the exercise period, will be reduced to a total of 22 sessions, which is less than half compared to the 51 sessions held during the March FS exercise last year.
During the administration of President Yoon Sukyeol, combined field training exercises (FTX) were concentrated during the annual theater-level command post exercises (CPX) such as FS in March and 'Ulchi Freedom Shield' (UFS, also known as Ulchi Freedom Shield) in August. However, under the administration of Lee Jaemyung, there is a trend towards dispersing FTX throughout the year.
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This change appears to reflect some opinions within the government that the training should be adjusted to help create favorable conditions for the resumption of North Korea-U.S. dialogue, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to China from March 31 to April 2. However, North Korea, which has long reacted sensitively to South Korea-U.S. combined exercises by calling them ‘invasion rehearsals,’ is once again likely to respond with actions such as ballistic missile launches.
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