SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and the United States began their annual large-scale joint military exercise on Monday to better cope with threats by nuclear-armed North Korea, which has warned the drills would deepen regional tensions and vowed to respond to \u201cany provocation\u201d against its territory.<\/p>\n
The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield, the second of two large-scale exercises held annually in South Korea<\/a>, after another set in March<\/a>, will involve 21,000 soldiers, including 18,000 South Koreans, in computer-simulated command post operations and field training. <\/p>\n The drills, which the allies describe as defensive, could trigger a response from North Korea, which has long portrayed the allies\u2019 exercises as invasion rehearsals and has often used them as a pretext for military demonstrations and weapons tests aimed at advancing its nuclear program.<\/p>\n In a statement last week, North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol said the drills show the allies\u2019 stance of \u201cmilitary confrontation\u201d with the North and declared that its forces would be ready to counteract \u201cany provocation going beyond the boundary line.\u201d<\/p>\n Ulchi Freedom Shield comes at a pivotal moment for South Korea\u2019s new liberal President Lee Jae Myung,<\/a> who is preparing for an Aug. 25 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> in Washington. Trump has raised concerns in Seoul that he may shake up the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the American troop presence in South Korea and possibly reducing it as Washington shifts its focus more toward China.<\/p>\n Tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high as North Korea has brushed aside Lee\u2019s calls to resume diplomacy with its war-divided rival, with relations having soured in recent years as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accelerated his weapons program and deepened alignment with Moscow<\/a> following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat’s needed now is the courage to steadily take steps toward easing tensions, grounded in a firmly maintained state of ironclad security readiness,\u201d Lee said during a Cabinet meeting on Monday. South Korea also on Monday began a four-day civil defense drill involving thousands of public workers, often scheduled alongside the allies\u2019 summertime military exercises.<\/p>\n Seoul\u2019s previous conservative government responded to North Korean threats by expanding military exercises with the United States and seeking stronger U.S. assurances for nuclear deterrence, drawing an angry reaction from Kim, who last year renounced long-term reconciliation goals and rewrote the North\u2019s constitution to label the South a permanent enemy.<\/p>\n In his latest message to Pyongyang on Friday, Lee, who took office in June, said he would seek to restore a 2018-inter-Korean military agreement<\/a> designed to reduce border tensions and called for North Korea to respond to the South\u2019s efforts to rebuild trust and revive talks.<\/p>\n The 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between the Koreas, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes. <\/p>\n