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.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS