South Korean Air Force F-15K aircraft participate in South Korea-U.S. joint live-fire drills in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Joint Press Corps
South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint Freedom Shield military exercises starting Monday, the first to happen under U.S. President Donald Trump's second term.
During a joint press briefing on Thursday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) announced that the 11-day, nonstop exercises will run through March 20, focusing on enhancing their combined capabilities to deter North Korea's growing nuclear threats.
This year's drills will incorporate realistic threats, lessons from recent armed conflicts and evolving challenges, including North Korea's military strategy and capabilities, as well as its growing partnership with Russia.
"The ironclad commitment to ROK is strong as ever. We are fully in Freedom Shield 2025," USFK spokesperson Col. Ryan Donald said, when asked about concerns that Trump might scale down the drills. ROK stands for Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.
"What we are doing right now is building our readiness capabilities to defend ROK against any threat, defend those people residing in ROK and defend our homelands," he added.
Col. Lee Sung-joon, left, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shakes hands with Col. Ryan Donald, spokesperson for the U.S. Forces Korea during a briefing at the Ministry of National Defense, Thursday. Yonhap
During his first term, Trump described the joint drills as "expensive war games" and suspended them in 2018 while seeking a dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The exercises resumed in 2022.
"The scale of combined exercises remains unchanged, with approximately 19,000 personnel participating," said Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Lee Sung-joon.
He also stated that the drills will include joint all-domain live field training exercises across land, sea, air, cyber and space domains, integrated within the exercise scenarios to enhance interoperability and strengthen combined deterrence capabilities.
Some United Nations Command member states will participate in the drills, while the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission will observe. The commission was established as part of an armistice agreement that ended the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. It oversees and monitors the armistice terms between North and South Korea.
It remains unclear whether the U.S. will deploy nuclear assets such as strategic bombers or nuclear submarines to the Korean Peninsula during the exercise. In previous years, the drills have included advanced U.S. weaponry, such as bombers flown in from Guam.
Lee declined to specify whether the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, which arrived in the southern port city of Busan on Sunday, will participate in the drills.
The joint drills, however, got off to a rocky start as seven civilians were injured during a live-fire exercise linked to Freedom Shield in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday.
The exercise, held about 30 kilometers south of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, was a preparatory drill ahead of the actual Freedom Shield. It involved approximately 500 troops and more than 150 pieces of military hardware.
According to the South Korean Air Force, a KF-16 fighter jet taking part in the live-fire exercise abnormally released eight MK-82 bombs outside the designated training range at 10:04 a.m., which landed on a nearby residential area.
The incident left at least 15 people with minor to serious injuries, and destroyed a church and six other buildings in the village. A cargo vehicle was also damaged.
The Air Force said it is conducting an investigation into the accident and apologized for the damage to civilians. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo and USFK Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson were overseeing the live-fire drills.
Firefighters are seen in a village in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, after a bomb fell during a South Korea-U.S. joint live-fire drill. Joint Press Corps