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South Korea to stage military exercise without US next week

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Military officials including Republic of Korea Coast Guard special force members and Navy officials conduct a simulative sea-counter terrorism exercise in Busan, in this Aug. 18, 2010 photo. Korea Times file
Military officials including Republic of Korea Coast Guard special force members and Navy officials conduct a simulative sea-counter terrorism exercise in Busan, in this Aug. 18, 2010 photo. Korea Times file

By Jung Da-min

South Korea next week will stage a new civilian-military exercise Ulchi Taeguek, without the U.S. military following an earlier decision to suspend the larger-scale South Korea-U.S. joint drill Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG).

The Ministry of National Defense said Friday that the exercise would focus on transitioning to the war stage and overall defensive readiness to respond to various situations.

Ulchi Taeguek consists of the South Korean military's independent Taeguek command post exercise (CPX), which used to be held in May, as well as the government-led civilian exercise to respond to terrorist attacks and disasters like earthquakes that used to be part of the now-suspended UFG, usually held in August.

The government-led civilian exercise will be held May 27-28, followed by the military's CPX exercise under simulated wartime environment from May 28-30.

The scaled-down Ulchi-Taeguek exercise follows North Korea's recent launch of short range missiles and "unidentified" missiles on May 4 and May 9.

President Moon Jae-in has said North Korea fired "short-range" missiles, but it has yet to be seen if they involved "ballistic" missiles, which would violate United Nations sanctions.

The government did not give further the details about the exercise, citing the confidentiality of military information, but dismissed concerns that the exercise might not be efficient as the South Korea-U.S. joint drill.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, about 480,000 civilians, government officials and armed service members from about 4,000 administrative and related agencies will participate in the four-day exercise.

Last year, Seoul and Washington decided to suspend temporarily the UFG exercise, which had been conducted since it was initiated in 1976 under the name Ulchi Focus Lens, which was renamed the UFG in 2008.

The decision came after Trump met North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore, for the first U.S.-North Korea summit, where the two sides agreed to work together to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

But the denuclearization talks have been stalled after the breakdown of their Hanoi summit in February, where they failed to reach an agreement over differences on the scope of Pyongyang's denuclearization steps and sanctions relief by Washington.

North Korea has blasted South Korea over conducting joint military exercises with the U.S., saying they go against the trend toward reconciliation on the peninsula nurtured through joint efforts of the two Koreas for the past year.

The two Koreas signed the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) last September, when Moon and Kim held their third summit in Pyongyang, a joint military agreement to ease military tension.

But the North has remained silent over a planned joint excavation of 1950-53 Korean War remains near the border area, while the South began the excavation project on Arrowhead Ridge in April, saying Seoul was still waiting for the North to respond.



Jung Da-min damin.jung@koreatimes.co.kr


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