Seoul 22 August : South Korea and the US started a regular joint military exercise Monday morning, bringing back large-scale field training that was suspended just four years ago.The Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise is scheduled to run until September 1 and will include an array of drills for contingencies, such as concurrent field maneuvers that were not conducted in the last few years under the previous Moon Jae-in administration’s push for peace with Pyongyang according to Yonhap News Agency.
Allies have maintained vigilantely watching for the threat of Pyongyang engaging in provocations under the basis of responding to their actions that the regime that is recalcitrant has dismissed as a war-planning exercise.
In the context of an all-out war strategy the exercise is comprised of two components – the first part involving exercises on restraining North Korean attacks and defending the greater Seoul area, with the second part that focuses on counterattacks.
In the first part of the first segment, the Seoul government will also conduct the Ulchi civil defense drills for four days, which will include training to transition into the wartime support mode.
The UFS will include drills for various scenarios in real life, including the discovery of homemade explosive devices in nuclear power stations, an explosion in an semiconductor factory, the entanglement of banks or airports, terrorist attacks and drone attacks according to the Defence Ministry.
In the course of the exercise allies will conduct 13 fields training programmes.
This exercise will also include a fully operational capability (FOC) assessment, which is a important step towards the conditions-based transfer of operational control during wartime (OPCON) from Washington to Seoul.
The FOC assessment is the second stage of the three-part program designed to assess Seoul’s capability to guide the allies’ combined forces.
The program is one of different conditions needed to facilitate the OPCON handover.
To stop the spread of Covid-19 The two parties have put in the place a set of strict anti-virus measures, like the requirement that troops undergo tests for viruses prior to participating in the exercise and wearing masks for their faces.
