The South Korean and U.S. militaries announced on the 6th that they will conduct a joint exercise called 'Freedom Shield (FS)' starting on the 10th. The FS exercise is a joint drill between the South Korean and U.S. forces that regularly takes place every March and replaces the Key Resolve training that began in 1976.
On that day, the South Korean and U.S. militaries held a joint briefing at the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan and said, 'The South Korea-U.S. alliance will reflect the realistic threats derived from an analysis of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, various military conflicts, and changes in the North Korean army's strategies, tactics, and capabilities in the scenarios to enhance the combined defense posture and response capabilities of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.'
The South Korean and U.S. forces plan to expand joint outdoor maneuver training across all domains, including ground, maritime, air, cyber, and space, during the FS exercise, which runs until the 20th. The size of participation will be the same as last year, with over 19,000 South Korean troops participating. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted, 'We plan to incorporate tactical changes such as drone attacks, GPS jamming, terrorism, and cyberattacks into the scenarios, and some joint outdoor maneuver training will be made public.'
This FS exercise is the first since the start of the second term of the Trump administration. U.S. President Donald Trump had previously described the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises as 'wasteful spending.' Regarding concerns that the South Korea-U.S. alliance may waver domestically, Donald Ryan, spokesperson for the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, said, 'I can assure you that the South Korea-U.S. alliance is as strong as ever. We will put our full efforts into the FS exercise.'
South Korea and the United States have conducted defensive joint exercises assuming a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula twice a year. Typically, the FS exercise takes place in March, while the 'Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS)' exercise occurs in August.
There are also discussions about the possibility of North Korea continuing provocations around the time of the FS exercise. Kim Yo-jong, Deputy Director of the Workers' Party, issued a statement on the 4th regarding the deployment of the U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and the B-1B stealth bomber to the Korean Peninsula, saying, 'We are carefully considering options to increase strategic-level threatening actions against the security interests of the adversarial nation.'