By Lee Min-hyung
South Korea and the United States are likely to hold their annual military drills next month, but they could keep them low-key, according to sources, Thursday.
The allies delayed the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills, originally scheduled for February, to prevent possible tension with North Korea ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. North Korea also held a low-key military parade on the eve of the Olympics in an apparent gesture of reconciliation.
Downsizing the drills is the most probable scenario for Seoul to maintain the ongoing mood for dialogue with Pyongyang.
North Korea has demanded the U.S. and South Korea suspend the drills for good, threatening to take “stern” countermeasures against the move.
The government, however, is likely to resume the drills as planned in April, as the U.S. has expressed a strong willingness to conduct the exercises right after the closing of the PyeongChang Paralympics in mid-March.
“There is little chance of the delay or suspension of the joint exercises,” Moon Chung-in, special adviser to President Moon Jae-in, said in a seminar in Washington, Tuesday.
Pyongyang is likely to lodge a vehement protest even against toned-down annual drills, so he said the thing is how to proactively deal with the reaction from the North.
He said President Moon will feel like he is walking on egg shells, taking an approach of “maximum prudence” on North Korea unlike maximum pressure from the U.S.
“I hope Washington and Pyongyang resume dialogue before the resumption of the drill, and I am optimistic for the possibility of U.S.-North Korea talks in the near future,” he noted.
President Moon also hopes to use the North’s rare reconciliatory mood as a chance to mediate talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
Both sides have shown their will to talk sometime in the near future. U.S. President Donald Trump, however, argues the country will resume dialogue with the North only when the regime promises to stop developing nuclear weapons and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Pyongyang has yet to give a detailed response, but chances are slim at the moment that the regime will accept this proposal.
The Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korea newspaper published in Japan, said in a report the North will “never succumb to such an oppressive policy from the U.S.”
“The U.S. is misleading international opinion as if Pyongyang is begging for dialogue with Washington,” the report said Thursday. “The Trump administration should keep in mind that the chance for bilateral talks will never come unless the country decides to drop such a confrontational policy.”
Seoul and Washington delayed the regular military exercises until after the closing of the Paralympics in PyeongChang after both sides agreed to temporarily stop provocations from the North during the Olympics.
But with the North sending an unexpected sign for peace, reports surfaced that the joint drills could be delayed further away from the end of the Paralympics. Seoul and Washington will announce when and how they will conduct the drills before the end of this month.
On Wednesday, a spokesman from the office of U.S. Senator James Inhofe denied reports saying he discussed further delaying the joint drills on his recent trip to South Korea.