Allies to begin annual Freedom Shield military exercise next week

South Korea and the United States plan to commence their springtime joint military exercise next week, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday, amid heightened tensions over the North’s recent cruise missile tests.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun, left, and United States Forces Korea spokesperson Col. Isaac Taylor pose during their joint press briefing on Wednesday at the Defense Ministry in Yongsan District, central Seoul, where they announced details regarding the allies' upcoming Freedom Shield exercise. [JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF]

South Korea and the United States plan to commence their springtime joint military exercise next week, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday, amid heightened tensions over the North’s recent cruise missile tests and live-fire artillery drills in the Yellow Sea.

According to the JCS, the annual Freedom Shield exercise, which is scheduled to take place from Monday to March 14, will take the form of a computer simulation-based command post exercise involving land, sea, air, cyber and space assets to strengthen the allies’ combined defense posture against a variety of security threats.

“There will be a variety of combined field training drills on land, sea, and in the air to increase interoperability and enhance the combined operation capabilities of the alliance,” JCS spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-jun said in a joint press briefing at the Defense Ministry in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

Lee said that a total of 48 field training drills — double the number of last year's joint exercise — will take place across the country during this year’s Freedom Shield but that no joint drills will take place near the inter-Korean border during the exercise.

The spokesperson also said that the exercise will include “practice detecting and intercepting North Korea’s cruise missiles,” reflecting the high number fired by Pyongyang in January and earlier this month.

The North has conducted five separate rounds of cruise missile testing thus far this year, including the launch of what Pyongyang’s state media described as a “new-type” missile, Padasuri-6, on Feb. 14.

In a statement by the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency in January, regime leader Kim Jong-un called the Northern Limit Line, which serves as the de facto inter-Korean boundary in the Yellow Sea, a “ghost line” without legal basis.

Kim also threatened to treat any South Korean “encroachment” into the North’s maritime territory as a “war provocation,” stoking concern that an accidental clash between the Koreas at sea could escalate into a full-blown conflict.

The JCS has maintained that the NLL is the South Korean military’s “unchanged maritime border” and vowed to respond “firmly” to “any provocations” by the North.

At the same press briefing, United States Forces Korea spokesperson Col. Isaac Taylor said the allies’ exercise would be defensive in nature and adhere to the guidelines outlined in the Armistice Agreement that ended active hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.

“We continue to rehearse during these exercises on what needs to be done to defend the Korean Peninsula,” Taylor said.

The North has often accused South Korea and the United States of conducting joint military exercises to prepare for an invasion of its territory.

This year’s Freedom Shield exercise will include participation by personnel from 12 member states of the United Nations Command (UNC), while the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) is due to observe the drills to ensure they adhere to the terms of the armistice.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]