South Korea, U.S. begin combined military exercise as North fires missiles into Yellow Sea
Published: 10 Mar. 2025, 17:22
Updated: 10 Mar. 2025, 18:13
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- SEO JI-EUN
- [email protected]
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
![Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air guided interceptors are deployed at U.S. Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on March 10. North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea, South Korea's military said, as Seoul and Washington launched their annual military drills, marking the North's first known ballistic missile test since U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/10/8f5d249c-218f-4098-ab05-1348968b69b3.jpg)
Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air guided interceptors are deployed at U.S. Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on March 10. North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea, South Korea's military said, as Seoul and Washington launched their annual military drills, marking the North's first known ballistic missile test since U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House. [NEWS1]
South Korea and the United States began their annual Freedom Shield combined military exercise on Monday, with the drills to bolster the defense of the Korean Peninsula set to continue until March 20.
North Korea on the same day launched multiple ballistic missiles into the Yellow Sea, with the regime also releasing a statement condemning the exercise as a provocation.
This year’s Freedom Shield exercise includes a command post exercise (CPX) designed to simulate an all-out war scenario on the Korean Peninsula alongside joint field training exercises (FTX) across land, sea, air, cyber and space, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The number of field training drills increased from ten last year to 16.
Training scenarios will incorporate modern warfare tactics, including GPS jamming, cyberattacks, drone-based assaults and tactical changes observed in North Korea’s recent troop deployments to aid Russia in its war against Ukraine, the JCS said.
However, some aspects of the field training, including live-fire drills, have been suspended due to a military mishap last Thursday.
The incident involved two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets that mistakenly dropped eight MK-82 air-to-ground bombs on a civilian area in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, instead of a designated firing range, injuring dozens. In response, the South Korean Defense Ministry announced that all live-fire drills, including rifle shooting, will be suspended until a full investigation is completed.
![A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter takes off at U.S. Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on March 10, as South Korea and the United States launched the annual Freedom Shield exercise for an 11-day run. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/10/77b1c1bb-0809-4db9-ae6f-38307f6137ea.jpg)
A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter takes off at U.S. Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on March 10, as South Korea and the United States launched the annual Freedom Shield exercise for an 11-day run. [NEWS1]
The JCS said the missiles are believed to be close-range ballistic missiles, or CRBM.
This marks North Korea’s first ballistic missile launch since Jan. 14 and the first since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Experts warned that Pyongyang could gradually escalate in a calculated way.
By firing low-intensity, short-range missiles at the start of the South Korea-U.S. military drills, North Korea is translating Kim Yo-jong’s previous warning about "increasing the actions threatening the security of the enemy at the strategic level” into action, said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies.
“As the large-scale U.S.-South Korea combined exercises reach their peak, there is a high possibility that North Korea could raise its provocation level by launching a hypersonic intermediate-range missile,” he said.
Freedom Shield is one of the allies' two major annual exercises based on an all-out war scenario. The other exercise — Ulchi Freedom Shield — usually takes place in August.
Earlier in the day, North Korea issued a statement warning that Freedom Shield would make the North "redouble its responsible efforts to keep lasting peace in the Korean peninsula and the region through the trustworthy strength accompanied by the radical growth of the nuclear force."
The North Korean Foreign Ministry, in an English-language statement released through its official newspaper Rodong Sinmun, described the exercise as a "dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point."
The ministry also linked the exercise to the recent change in U.S. leadership, saying the "military hysteria of the U.S., which is surely going on irrespective of the policy ambiguity inevitably witnessed with the regime change, clearly proves the instinctive anti-DPRK practice of the U.S. engrossed in sanctions, pressure and confrontation, being seized by its inveterate hostility toward the DPRK."
The DPRK is an acronym for the official name of North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
“The reckless action and unreasonable choice of the U.S. seeking to 'solemnly' play the first movement of a war symphony through the largest-ever military provocation this year will act as 'minus' to the U.S. security,” the Foreign Ministry warned.
BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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