Service members from U.N. Command, Mixed Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea work in the course of the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Defend train in South Korea, Aug. 22, 2022. (South Korea Ministry of Nationwide Protection)
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — American and South Korean forces on Monday commenced the second part of their largest joint train in 5 years, marking one other milestone in Seoul’s makes an attempt to take wartime management of its navy.
Ulchi Freedom Defend, the 11-day navy drill ending Thursday, has entered the “counterattack operations” part, a South Korean Ministry of Nationwide Protection official advised Stars and Stripes by telephone Monday.
The second part goals “to make sure [South Korea’s] security in response to enemy assaults,” the ministry official mentioned.
North Korea condemns the workouts as rehearsals for invasions of its territory; U.S. and South Korean navy chiefs say they’re preparations for protection towards a North Korean assault.
The communist regime has made preparations for its first nuclear weapons take a look at since 2017, U.S. and South Korean protection officers warned since July.
The coaching websites, troop numbers and different particulars haven’t been publicly disclosed by the USA and South Korean navy. U.S. Forces Korea, the navy command chargeable for the roughly 28,500 troops on the peninsula, has mentioned it doesn’t touch upon ongoing coaching as a matter of coverage.
Army items are participating in area workouts and in pc simulations “everywhere in the nation,” the ministry official mentioned.
South Korean officers usually communicate to the media underneath the situation of anonymity.
Media entry to Ulchi Freedom Defend has been scant. Publicly launched data has been restricted to some information releases and images of USFK commander Gen. Paul LaCamera and Protection Minister Lee Jong-sup discussing the operations at a command bunker close to Seoul.
Details about the counterattack coaching is unavailable, however in earlier workouts the 2 allies have centered on a central theme, mentioned Yang Uk, an affiliate analysis fellow on the Asan Institute for Coverage Research in Seoul.
“It could possibly be a restricted assault or a full-scale assault” from an adversary, he advised Stars and Stripes by telephone Monday. “There’s many features to battle that you simply can’t practice for unexpectedly; every year, you must specify and have a theme.”
By specializing in a central theme, the navy can practice for a number of variations of that state of affairs, he mentioned.
Yang mentioned this yr’s train is “actually vital” and its theme is probably going associated to South Korea’s total protection capabilities.
Workout routines like Ulchi Freedom Defend are one in all many necessities South Korea’s navy should fulfill for the U.S. to relinquish its wartime authority, in accordance with the quite a few, evolving bilateral agreements spanning a number of presidential administrations, together with most lately between Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart, Suh Wook, in 2021.
Seoul retains management of its navy in peacetime; nonetheless, that authority will likely be outdated by Washington within the occasion of battle.
South Korea’s navy has been present process a decades-long analysis by its U.S. counterpart for extra autonomy. USFK introduced in a information launch Aug. 23 that a South Korean military normal would lead the large-scale train alongside the command’s chief for the primary time, one of many necessities set out by the protection leaders from each nations.
The train was suspended after 2017, when then-President Donald Trump and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in negotiated with North Korean chief Kim Jong Un for denuclearization.
That suspension was lifted when South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol took workplace in Could after campaigning for stronger navy ties with the U.S.
