Massive US-South Korea military drills watched by China, Russia amid growing tensions

South Korean military has said it will be ‘normalising’ the joint exercises that have been portrayed as invasion rehearsals by the North

The exercises, which could include some US soldiers from outside the Korean peninsula, have raised eyebrows in China and Russia, analyst notes

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South Korean army K-9 self-propelled howitzers take positions in Paju, near the border with North Korea on Monday. The United States and South Korea began their biggest combined military training in years earlier this week. Photo: AP

Published: 8:45am, 26 Aug 2022Updated: 5:06pm, 26 Aug 2022

The ongoing South Korea-US joint military exercises, known to be the two allies’ biggest combined defence training in years, are drawing much attention in the region amid mounting superpower rivalry, analysts have said.

Code-named the Ulchi Freedom Shield, the military exercises that began on Monday will last until September 1. They involve aircraft, warships, tanks and potentially tens of thousands of troops, with some US soldiers likely to be flown in from outside the Korean peninsula.

The South Korean military on Tuesday said it would be “normalising” the joint exercises that had been scaled down and modified under the past liberal government seeking reconciliation and dialogue with the North.

South Korean soldiers during an anti-terrorism drill on the sidelines of the joint South Korea-US Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises in Seoul on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

“There is greater international interest in these US-South Korea defence exercises because they are gradually returning to a scale and sophistication typical before the pandemic and [Donald] Trump’s inconclusive summitry with North Korea (in 2018),” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

Seoul and Washington’s combined drills also came at a time of heightened tensions in the region after Beijing conducted extensive military manoeuvres in the vicinity of Taiwan, he said.

While Washington and Seoul describe their exercises as defensive, North Korea portrays them as invasion rehearsals and has used them to justify its nuclear weapons and missiles development.

Theatre-level South Korea-US joint military exercises where the entire Korean peninsula is treated as a battlefield take place twice a year – once in March and once in August.