The US and South Korea yesterday started a low-key joint military drill as a diplomatic thaw over North Korea gathered pace.
Tension on the flashpoint peninsula has shown signs of easing after the nuclear-armed North proposed summits with the South and their “imperialist enemy” the US.
The annual Foal Eagle drill — a series of field training exercises involving about 11,500 US and 290,000 South Korean troops — began early yesterday, a South Korean Ministry of Defense spokesman said.
The drill — which was delayed to avoid clashing with February’s Winter Olympics in the South — is to be held for a month, about half the time it usually lasts.
This year’s drills feature fewer strategic weapons, such as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the South Korean military said earlier.
The deployment of such powerful weapons at past drills has frequently drawn an angry response from North Korea.
The two allies are also set to stage the annual Key Resolve drill — a tabletop exercise using mainly computer-based simulations — for the usual duration of two weeks beginning late this month.
Pyongyang, which habitually slams the joint army drills between South Korea and the US as a rehearsal for invasion, has remained relatively quiet on the issue.
The Foal Eagle drill started the same day as a historic concert by South Korean pop stars in Pyongyang, which was to be staged late yesterday as a peace gesture ahead of this month’s inter-Korea summit.
Eleven South Korean acts — including popular K-pop girl group Red Velvet — were to perform in the North Korean capital — the first such concert in more than a decade.
The flurry of reconciliatory moves comes after the Pyeongchang Winter Games, which North Korea used to mount a charm offensive, sending athletes, cheerleaders and even North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister as a delegate.
Kim, who last week met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing on his first overseas trip as leader, on Saturday met International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in Pyongyang, thanking him for helping to bring about a “dramatic thawing” of tensions on the peninsula.
Kim is set to hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 at the border truce village of Panmunjom — the third time ever that any leaders of the two rivals have met.
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