Korea, U.S. finish first big joint exercises in years

Defense

Published: 01 Sep. 2022, 18:40 Updated: 01 Sep. 2022, 18:45

Korea, U.S. finish first big joint exercises in years

Soldiers from the South Korean and U.S. militaries conduct an explosive detection and removal drill near Gomo Station in Suseong District, eastern Daegu on Thursday. [YONHAP]

South Korea and the United States wrapped up their 11-day joint military exercise Thursday, highlighting combined capabilities against North Korean military threats as well as South Korea's ability to lead the allies in wartime, according to Seoul's defense officials.

The exercise marked the return of field training drills in line with the aim of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration to "normalize" the joint exercises, which were scaled down or suspended under his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, whose North Korean policy stressed engagement.

On Wednesday, a joint unit composed of U.S. and South Korean military forces held their first live-fire exercises since its formation in 2015 at a shooting range 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea.

Pyongyang has long criticized joint exercises by the South Korean and U.S. militaries as rehearsals for invasion.

Seoul and Washington counter that the exercises are necessary to maintain a strong combine defense posture in the event of war.

The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), which started on Aug. 22, integrated civilian contingency drills with large-scale military field exercises.

According to the United States Forces Korea (USFK), the name of this year’s exercise was updated to highlight the integration of the South Korean government’s Ulchi civilian emergency drills into the exercise.

USFK also said that the word “Freedom” in the name symbolizes the allies’ commitment to protecting freedom as an “immutable value” of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, while “Shield” symbolizes the defensive nature of the exercise.

According to Seoul defense officials, the South Korean government and military mastered their crisis management and cross-agency operational capabilities in the imagined scenario of a full-scale North Korean invasion during the exercise.

Based on an all-out war concept, the joint exercise had three main components: a computer-simulated command post exercise, more than a dozen field training exercises and the South Korean government’s civil defense drills.

The first half of the exercise involved drills focused on repelling North Korean attacks and defending the area around Seoul, while the second focused on counterattack operations.

This year’s exercise marked the first time that the joint exercises were led by a South Korean, Combined Forces Command (CFC) deputy commander Gen. Ahn Byung-seok.

The switch from the CFC’s U.S. commander-in-chief to the South Korean deputy commander is part of a Full Operational Capability (FOC) assessment, one of the steps that precedes the transfer of wartime operational control (Opcon) of the allies’ combined forces from Washington to Seoul.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin agreed at a December 2021 meeting with his South Korean counterpart at the time, Defense Minister Suh Wook, that the FOC assessment should take place during this year’s exercise.

The FOC assessment is the second phase of a three-part verification process to determine if South Korea is ready to lead the allies’ combined forces in wartime.

South Korea has not held wartime Opcon since the 1950-53 Korean War, when it handed operational control over its troops to the U.S.-led United Nations Command. Opcon was subsequently transferred to the U.S.-led CFC when the command was launched in 1978.

The country regained peacetime Opcon in 1994, but the United States retains wartime operational control.

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