The South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise, Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), comes to an early close today (August 21).

Originally scheduled to run through August 27 after kicking off on August 17, the UFS exercise duration was drastically reduced from 11 days to 5 days following a downsizing directive from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Out of 14 battalion-level or higher combined field training exercises originally planned in connection with the UFS command post exercise (CPX), only half will be conducted as scheduled.

The UFS exercise, which simulates a full-scale war scenario on the Korean Peninsula, is typically divided into Part 1 (defense) and Part 2 (counterattack). This time, only Part 1 is being executed before concluding.

Following President Trump's directive on August 16 local time to significantly scale down joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises, defense authorities from both countries agreed to omit Part 2 of the command post exercise and downsize the field maneuvers.

Meanwhile, the Ssangyong Exercise, a biennial division-level combined amphibious exercise between the South Korean and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, has also been canceled this year.

The Ssangyong Exercise was originally slated for September this year, but the U.S. side reportedly requested adjustments to the training schedule around June due to constrained troop deployments resulting from the aftermath of the Iran war.

Consequently, South Korea and the U.S. made the final decision last month to cancel this year's exercise.

(Photo: Yonhap News)