(Seoul) South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military maneuvers in five years on Monday, despite threats from North Korea, which announced hours earlier that it had fired two cruise missiles from a sub -marine.
Washington and Seoul have strengthened their defense cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from Pyongyang, which has increased weapons tests in recent months.
The “Freedom Shield” exercises between American and South Korean forces, which begin Monday for at least ten days, will focus on “the changing security environment” due to the redoubled aggressiveness of North Korea, the allies said.
In a rare occurrence, the South Korean military revealed in early March that special forces from Washington and Seoul would hold military “Teak Knife” maneuvers – which consist of simulating precision strikes on key installations in North Korea – before “Freedom Shield”.
All these exercises arouse the ire of Pyongyang, which considers them general rehearsals for an invasion of its territory or an overthrow of its regime, while justifying its own nuclear and ballistic weapons programs by the need to defend itself.
On Sunday, North Korea launched two cruise missiles from a submarine, the North Korean news agency KCNA reported on Monday.
KCNA says the exercise was successful, with the missiles hitting their designated and unspecified targets off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.
“Invariant Position”
The agency stressed that this shot expresses North Korea’s “invariable position” in the face of a situation in which “the American imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces are advancing in a less and less concealed way in their military maneuvers against the DPRK”, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Last week, Kim Yo Jong, the very powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, quoted by KCNA, said that an interception of missiles launched by her country would be “considered a clear declaration of war”.
“Pyongyang has military capabilities under development that it wants to test anyway, and likes to use Washington and Seoul’s cooperation as an excuse,” Ewha University professor Leif-Eric Easley told AFP. from Seoul.
In 2022, the North called its status as a nuclear power “irreversible” and conducted a series of ballistic tests in violation of UN resolutions.
On Friday, KCNA reported that Kim Jong-un had ordered his army to step up military maneuvers for “real war”.
She also said on Sunday that “significant practical measures were discussed and adopted for a more effective, powerful and offensive use of war deterrence”, at a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party in power chaired by Kim Jong-un.
Washington has repeatedly reaffirmed its “unwavering” commitment to defending South Korea using “the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear” and recently sought to reassure Seoul of their expanded deterrent capability to their allies.
Non-nuclear South Korea remains officially committed to non-proliferation, even as there are growing domestic calls for the country to obtain its own nuclear weapons.
A nuclear test?
Although the official policy of the two countries towards the North, namely that the North Korean leader must give up his nuclear weapons and return to the negotiating table, has not changed, experts believe that there is has been a change in practice.
Washington has “effectively recognized that North Korea will never give up its nuclear program,” defector An Chan-il, director of the World Institute for North Korean Studies, told AFP.
“Freedom Shield” will therefore be “very different – both qualitatively and quantitatively – from previous joint exercises that have taken place in recent years”, he added.
North Korea, which recently called for an “exponential” increase in the production of weapons, including tactical nuclear weapons, is expected to respond with missile strikes and military maneuvers.
“North Korea will use the Freedom Shield 2023 exercise to unify its people and use it as an excuse to invest more in weapons of mass destruction,” Chun In-bum, a senior general, told AFP. retired South Korean army.
“Further missile launches, with variations in style and range, and even a nuclear test are to be expected. Further acts of intimidation from North Korea would not be surprising,” he added.
Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification, however, said the North should not “cross the red line”.
The regime should refrain from activities “that would force the United States and South Korea to retaliate”, he told AFP.