Joint Exercises Drastically Cut and Ended 6 Days Early in Unprecedented Move

[Anchor]

Following U.S. President Trump's instruction to scale back South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise will end the day after tomorrow (the 21st), six days ahead of schedule. It is an unprecedented situation for ongoing exercises to be drastically cut in duration and scale midway. With the planned drills effectively halved, concerns are rising that this could impact the transition of wartime operational control (OPCON).

Reporter Kim Hye-young has the details.

[Reporter]

The South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), which was originally scheduled to run for over ten days until the 27th, has been changed to end the day after tomorrow.

Only Part 1, a defensive drill responding to North Korean attacks, will be conducted, while Part 2, the counterattack drill, has been completely canceled.

A significant number of the 14 planned battalion-level or higher joint field training exercises have also been canceled or replaced with simulations.

It is unprecedented for an already underway South Korea-U.S. exercise to have its duration and scale drastically reduced at the request of the U.S. side.

While the Ministry of National Defense maintains that the transition schedule will not be affected since the evaluation for the OPCON transition concludes in the defensive phase of Part 1, concerns are also being raised that even Part 1 is being conducted in a disorganized and slipshod manner, making a proper evaluation difficult.

[Yang Uk / Research Fellow, Asan Institute for Policy Studies: As the drills are scaled back, opportunities for verification decrease, yet we are facing a situation where the OPCON transition must proceed according to a political schedule.]

This scaling back of UFS took place just two days after U.S. President Trump issued his directive.

Back in 2018, immediately following the North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore, President Trump also called the joint exercises "very provocative and expensive" and ordered them halted.

At that time, the suspension was decided after the summit, but this time, the reduction of drills is being pushed through before even the outlines of a summit have emerged.

With the precedent set for ongoing joint exercises to be disrupted by the political decisions of the U.S. president, voices of concern are emerging that neighboring countries might misjudge the solidarity of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

(Camera <Video> Input: Kim Hyun-sang, Video Editing: Lee Seung-hee)

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