South Korea and the United States on Thursday wrapped up a major combined military exercise designed to reinforce deterrence against North Korean threats, the South's military said, amid a monthlong pause in Pyongyang's missile launches. The annual computer-simulated Freedom Shield exercise drew to a close after kicking off March 4 amid tensions over Pyongyang's saber-rattling earlier this year, including artillery firings near the western sea border and a series of missile tests. The joint exercise took place with an aim to improve the allies' combined defense posture, officials said, focusing on multi-domain operations by utilizing land, sea, air, cyber and space assets, and countering the North's nuclear operations. Pyongyang has long denounced the allies' military drills as rehearsals for an invasion against it, while Seoul and Washington have rejected such claims, describing their exercises as defensive in nature. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Shin Won-sik called on troops to master operational syst ems to "neutralize" the North's nuclear and missile networks as he visited a key wartime command bunker complex in Seongnam, just south of Seoul. The allies, however, did not train under a scenario of a North Korean nuclear attack, with that scenario expected to be incorporated in their major combined exercise in August. In connection with Freedom Shield, the two sides planned a total of 48 on-field drills this month, more than double the figure in a similar period last year. Personnel from 12 member states of the United Nations Command, including Britain, also joined the exercise with the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, tasked with overseeing the armistice of the 1950-53 Korean War, observing them. The latest joint exercise had raised concerns of the North staging missile tests in protest as it had done so in the past, but its military demonstrations over the 11-day period did not include such launches. The North's defense ministry last week denounced the allies' drills and warned it would condu ct "responsible" military activities to control what it called an unstable security environment on the Korean Peninsula. During Freedom Shield, the North's leader Kim Jong-un guided a series of military drills, including artillery firing, involving units within range of Seoul, on March 7, and a training competition between tank units Wednesday, according to its state media. The South's military said it also detected suspected North Korean attempts to disrupt Global Positioning System signals around the northwestern border islands from March 5-7, although no damage has been reported. The North last fired multiple cruise missiles off its east coast on Feb. 14, in its fifth such missile launch this year, according to the South's military. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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