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Pilots from South Korean and US air forces chat after wrapping up a drill on March 8 during the first round of Buddy Wing joint exercises by the two sides running March 6 to March 10. (courtesy of the ROK Air Force)

South Korea and the US kicked off their Freedom Shield joint exercise on Monday. The drill, which will run through March 23, includes large-scale field maneuvers.

This is the first time in five years that the two sides are staging field maneuvers for the entire Korean Peninsula. Military tensions on the peninsula appear poised to rise with North Korea’s announcement that it had discussed and decided Sunday on measures for the aggressive use of “war deterrence.”

While Freedom Shield is a command post exercise focusing on computer simulations, it also includes large-scale field maneuvers involving the use of actual troops and equipment. During the exercise period, South Korea and the US are to carry out around 20 drills, including the Ssangryong (“double dragon”) joint amphibious drill and joint special operation exercises.

As inter-Korean and North Korea-US relations thawed in 2018, the South Korea-US joint field exercises were downscaled to the battalion level and lower. But after Yoon Suk-yeol took office as South Korean president, they were expanded to maneuver drills at the regimental level and higher during the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise last August. The latest exercises include a resumption of theater-class field maneuvers on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea and the US said their plans for the exercises included strengthening alliance-level response capabilities and staging customized drills based on scenarios reflecting the changed security environment with North Korea’s improved nuclear and missile capabilities and the war in Ukraine.

In the past, the drills were divided into an initial defense component, followed by a brief break and then a counterattack component. The latest exercises are scheduled to take place uninterrupted over the 11-day period.

A 100,000-ton US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and nuclear-powered submarine could reportedly also be conducting joint drills near the Korean Peninsula while joint missile warning exercises involving South Korea, the US, and Japan may also take place.

North Korea, however, has already signaled possible countermeasures.

On Sunday, North Korea announced that leader Kim Jong-un had presided over the 5th enlarged meeting of the 8th Central Military Commission of the WPK to discuss the issue of using the country’s war deterrent in a more “more effective, powerful and offensive” way.

According to an article published by the Korean Central News Agency on Sunday, “The meeting discussed and adopted the important practical steps for making more effective, powerful and offensive use of the war deterrent of the country in coping with the present situation in which the war provocations of the U.S. and south Korea are reaching the red-line.”

Previously, Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the WPK, issued a statement on Tuesday emphasizing that North Korea is “always on standby to take appropriate, quick and overwhelming action at any time according to our judgment,” citing recent military moves by the US and South Korea.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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