US cancels military exercises with South Korea

International Desk: The United States and South Korea have agreed to indefinitely suspend two exchange program training exercises, the Pentagon said on Friday, in the aftermath of the summit earlier this month between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The exercise known as Freedom Guardian has already been suspended but two Korean marine exchange program training exercises scheduled for the next three months would also be put on ice, a spokeswoman said.

Regarding suspension of the exercises, South Korea’s defence ministry said: “South Korea and the US decided to delay two of KMEP (drills) indefinitely, which was going to take place within the next three months.

“This is a part of follow-up measures after the North Korea-US summit and South Korea-North Korea summit. There could be additional measures should North Korea follow suit with productive cooperation.”

At a news conference after the meeting with Kim in Singapore, Trump announced that he would halt what he called “very provocative” and expensive regular military exercises that the United States holds with South Korea. North Korea had long sought an end to the war games.

Earlier this week, the United States and South Korea said they were suspending planning for August’s Freedom Guardian exercise.

Last year, 17,500 American troops and more than 50,000 South Korean troops joined the Freedom Guardian drills, although the exercise is mostly focused on computerised simulations rather than field exercises.
 

Source: The Guardian
 

risingbd/Dhaka/June 23, 2018/A K Azad