The South Korean and US militaries were to begin massive live-fire drills near the border with North Korea yesterday, despite the North’s warning that it would not tolerate what it calls a hostile invasion rehearsal on its doorstep.
Yesterday’s drills, the first of the allies’ five rounds of firing exercises until the middle of next month, mark 70 years since the establishment of the military alliance between Seoul and Washington.
North Korea has typically reacted to such major South Korean-US exercises with missile and other weapons tests.
Photo: AFP
Since the start of last year, North Korea has test-launched more than 100 missiles, but none since it fired a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile in the middle of last month.
North Korea has said its tests were in response to the expanded military drills between the US and South Korea, but observers have said the North aims to advance its weapons development to wrest concessions from its rivals in eventual diplomacy.
The US-South Korean firing exercises, called “combined annihilation firepower drills,” would be the biggest of their kind.
The drills have been held 11 times since they began in 1977, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said.
This year’s drills are to involve advanced stealth fighter jets, attack helicopters, tanks and multiple rocket launch systems from South Korea and the US, the ministry said.
It was not immediately known how many troops would take part in the drills, but previous exercises in 2017 — the most recent ones before this year — drew about 2,000 soldiers and 250 weapons assets from both countries.
An earlier ministry statement said that the drills are meant to enhance the allies’ combined operational performance capabilities.
South Korea and the US would seek to establish “the overwhelming deterrence and response capabilities” to cope with North Korean nuclear and missile threats, it said.
On Friday last week, the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) called the drills “a typical North Korea-targeted war rehearsal.”
It said North Korea “cannot but take a more serious note of the fact that” the drills would be held in an area a few kilometers from its frontier.
The KCNA said the US and South Korea would face unspecified “corresponding responses” over their series of large-scale, provocative drills.
Earlier this year, the South Korean and US militaries conducted their biggest field exercises in five years.
The US sent the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and nuclear-capable bombers for joint exercises with South Korea.
North Korea could use the South Korea-US drills as a pretext to resume testing activities to attain its stated goal of modernizing its weapons arsenals, Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy analyst Moon Seong-mook said.
Domestic issues such as North Korea’s push to increase agricultural production amid the rice-planting season could still affect its decision on weapons tests, he said.
AMPHIBIOUS EXERCISES: The defense ministry said that it had detected 24 Chinese PLA Air Force planes entering Taiwan’s air defense zone over the previous 24 hours Chinese movements around Taiwan were “abnormal,” Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said yesterday, flagging recent amphibious exercises in addition to drills Taipei has observed in China’s Fujian Province. Taiwan has reported a rise in Chinese military activity over the past week as dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships, have operated around the nation. “Our initial analysis is that they are doing joint drills in September, including land, sea, air and amphibious,” Chiu told reporters at the legislature in Taipei. The “recent enemy situation is quite abnormal,” he said. The comments followed a statement from the
IN MOURNING: Tsai visited the site and spoke with family members of those killed, while all the major presidential candidates said they would temporarily halt campaigning A fire and subsequent explosions at a golf ball factory at Pingtung Technology Industrial Park (屏東科技產業園區) killed at least seven people, including four firefighters, and injured 98, while three were still missing, authorities said yesterday. The blaze at Launch Technologies Co’s (明揚國際) plant on Jingjian Road raged for more than 12 hours after it started at about 5pm on Friday, officials said. The Pingtung County Fire Bureau early yesterday used large excavators to search for missing people, while family members waited at the scene. Pingtung County Fire Bureau Director Hsu Mei-hsueh (許美雪) said the bureau received a call about the fire at 5:31pm
DETERRENCE: The president on Thursday is to launch the first indigenous submarine, which is to enter sea trials next month before being delivered to the navy next year Taiwan hopes to deploy at least two new, domestically developed submarines by 2027, and possibly equip later models with missiles to bolster its deterrence against the Chinese navy and protect key supply lines, the head of the program said. Taiwan has made the Indigenous Submarine Program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who initiated the program when she took office in 2016, is expected to launch the first of eight new submarines on Thursday under a plan that has drawn on expertise and technology from
FISHING FUROR: The latest spat was sparked by a floating barrier that was found across the entrance of Scarborough Shoal during a resupply mission to fishers Beijing yesterday warned Manila not to “stir up trouble” after the Philippine Coast Guard said it removed a floating barrier at a disputed reef that was allegedly deployed by China to block Filipino fishers from the area. Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in the South China Sea has long been a source of tension between the nations. China seized the ring of reefs from the Philippines in 2012 and has since deployed patrol boats. The latest spat was sparked by a 300m floating barrier that was found across the entrance of the shoal last week during a routine Philippine government resupply mission
RSS