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Reuters

Before North Korea’s condemnation of US-South Korea military drills, even US policy wonks who follow every twist and turn of events on the Korean peninsula probably did not know much about them. That was no accident.
The Pentagon made a point of keeping the annual exercises off the front pages, even as US military leaders including Defence Secretary Jim Mattis saw them as critical to the US-South Korean alliance.
Mattis set an explicit policy of going quiet on North Korea, including on the drills, two months ago, just after US President Donald Trump signalled his willingness to hold an unprecedented meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Watch: North Korea threatens to cancel US talks


“I do not want to talk about Korea at all,” Mattis told a small group of reporters on March 10 as he flew from Washington, DC, to the Gulf state of Oman.
On Tuesday, North Korea threw into question the summit between Trump and Kim scheduled for next month, angrily blaming the drills and calling them “an intentional military provocation”, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The North Korean announcement upended Mattis’s goal of carrying out the drills without intense media coverage. But it also appeared to affirm his concerns about drawing too much attention now to US military activity on the Korean peninsula, which has long vexed Pyongyang. Pyongyang has viewed the US-South Korean drills as rehearsals for invasion.
It snuck up on me. [The Pentagon] have been very low-key about everything
Joshua Pollack, Middlebury Institute of International Studies
In early March, South Korea’s National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong said after meeting with Kim that the North Korean leader understood that “routine” joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States would continue in spite of improving relations.
This was widely seen as a major concession by North Korea as the United States seeks its denuclearisation, though Pyongyang never publicly withdrew its long-standing demand for an end to the drills.
Mattis made no secret that he feared that talking about exercises could somehow complicate the work of diplomats, something that appears now to have happened regardless of the Pentagon’s go-quiet approach.
“What I want you to understand is that right now every word is going to be nuanced and parsed apart across different cultures, at different times of the day, in different contexts,” he told reporters in March when asked about the drills.
He said US officials directly involved in the diplomatic effort should be the ones talking about North Korea.
So, the Pentagon kicked off one of its biggest annual air combat exercises, Max Thunder, with South Korea on May 14 without even issuing a statement.
North Korea threatens to cancel Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un summit, suspends high-level talks with South Korea over military drills
It was only when North Korea appeared to throw next month’s summit into question because of the drills that the Pentagon started pulling together information for the media about them.
Joshua Pollack, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, said: “It snuck up on me.”
Pollack said he only became aware of the Max Thunder drills when the KCNA statement was issued, adding: “They [the Pentagon] have been very low-key about everything.”

Max Thunder, one of two exercises being conducted, is an annual air combat drill at Gwangju airbase involving more than 1,000 forces from South Korea and the United States.
Although KCNA described the drills as the “largest ever”, the Pentagon said they were similar in size to previous years.
When Kim meets Trump: compromise holds the key to peace in Korea
“During Max Thunder, US and [South Korean] aircrews have the ability to fly missions in realistic scenarios. This type of training is integral to our ability to safeguard the Korean Peninsula together,” a Pentagon spokesman said.
Max Thunder is scheduled to end on May 25 and the other exercise, Foal Eagle, is expected to run until the end of May. The summit between Trump and Kim is scheduled for June 12 in Singapore.

Kim’s latest move could be aimed at testing Trump’s willingness to make concessions ahead of the summit, which is due to be preceded by a visit to Washington next week by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Bonnie Glaser of Washington’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank said Kim may be being influenced by Chinese President Xi Jinping after two recent meetings with him. The Chinese leader has advocated a freeze in North Korea’s nuclear programme in return for a freeze in US-South Korean drills.
That concession was previously ruled out by US and South Korean officials.
“The fact this issue is back on the table suggests Xi Jinping may have raised it with Kim, and that Kim is carrying Xi’s water,” she said.


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Korean peninsula

Low-key military drills between US and South Korea point to cautious approach ahead of planned Kim-Trump summit

A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt touching down at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, as the US and South Korea kicked off their joint air exercise. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this April 27, 2018, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in raise their hands after signing a joint statement at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone. Moon has stepped into the spotlight as he drives a new global push to settle the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. (Korea Summit Press Pool via AP, File)

South Korean peace activists hold placards reading "Stop! Max Thunder," during a rally denouncing South Korea-US joint military drills, in front of the US embassy in Seoul on May 16, 2018. North Korea cancelled high-level talks due on May 16 with South Korea over the Max Thunder joint military exercises being held between the United States and South Korea, denouncing the drills as a "rude and wicked provocation". / AFP PHOTO / Jung Yeon-je

Kim meets Moon: for real peace on the peninsula, leave Korea to itself

The inter-Korea summit brings the greatest chance for peace since the 1953 armistice. Grasping it requires more than Pyongyang dismantling WMDs. It needs Koreans to realise it is they alone who can determine their destiny

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in. Photo: Bloomberg

South Koreans hold unification flags to welcome the planned summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un near the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 26, 2018. Seoul says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon-Jae-in will plant a tree together and inspect an honor guard after Kim walks across the border for the leaders' historic summit. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

epa06695625 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) crosses the military demarcation line (MDL) as South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) greets him at the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, 27 April 2018. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are meeting at the Peace House in Panmunjom for an inter-Korean summit. The event marks the first time a North Korean leader has crossed the border into South Korea sine the end of hostilities during the Korean War. EPA-EFE/KOREA SUMMIT PRESS POOL / POOL

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the truce village of Panmunjom. Photo: Reuters

‘Guns and butter’: the real revolution in North Korea may be the rise of consumer culture

Song Un-pyol, manager at the Potonggang department store. Photo: AP

In this Monday, June 19, 2017, photo, staff members walk toward the escalators of the Potonggang department store in Pyongyang, North Korea. Three generations into Kim Jong Un's ruling dynasty, markets have blossomed and a consumer culture is taking root. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

In this Monday, June 19, 2017, photo, staff at the Potonggang department store stock shelves with local and imported snacks, mostly from China, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Three generations into Kim Jong Un's ruling dynasty, markets have blossomed and a consumer culture is taking root. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

In this Saturday, June 25, 2016, file photo, a man waits with shopping carts at a parking lot in front of a department store in Pyongyang, North Korea. Three generations into Kim Jong Un's ruling dynasty, markets have blossomed and a consumer culture is taking root. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

In this Monday, June 19, 2017, photo, hair accessories are sold on the second level of the Potonggang department store in Pyongyang, North Korea. Three generations into Kim Jong Un's ruling dynasty, markets have blossomed and a consumer culture is taking root. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

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The Pentagon kicked off one of its biggest annual air combat exercises with South Korea on May 14 without even issuing a statement, highlighting concerns that talking about the exercises could complicate the work of diplomats


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