Allies to start low-key joint drills Friday

Defense Minister Song Young-moo shakes hands with U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift after a meeting at the ministry in Yongsan, central Seoul, March 8. / Yonhap

By Choi Ha-young

South Korea and the United States will start their annual military exercises, Friday, but they will be kept low-key in consideration of revived diplomacy with North Korea, military sources said Monday.

The Foal Eagle exercise will start April 1 for a one-month run, while the Key Resolve drills will begin Friday. The schedule will be officially announced today

The sources emphasized that the combined exercises will take place “on the level of previous years,” but U.S. strategic assets including nuclear-powered submarines and B-1B bombers are not expected to show up. Last year, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson took part in the exercise.

The duration of the Foal Eagle exercise is likely to be reduced to one month, compared to two months last year. Key Resolve will be conducted for two weeks, as it was last year. As a part of Foal Eagle, the two allies will carry out the Ssangyong (double dragon) exercise, a marine landing drill in case of war.

The allies plan to keep the Ssangyong exercise out of the public eye, so as not to hamper the ongoing diplomacy, according to local media reports. The North normally reacts angrily to the exercise.

Defense Minister Song Young-moo earlier hinted at a smaller scale of the combined drills. “You need not send strategic weapons ― such as nuclear-powered submarines ― this time while serving as commander,” Song jokingly said in a meeting with U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift, March 8.

The exercises are normally held from around late February to early March. However, President Donald Trump accepted President Moon Jae-in's request to delay them until the ends the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which finished Sunday.

The resumption of the combined drills shows the allies' efforts to keep up pressure on the North though negotiations are underway behind the scenes. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he “understands the routine joint military exercises between the South Korea and the United States must continue,” in a meeting with the South's National Security Office director Chung Eui-yong.

The combined exercises will be a key bargaining chip in the planned nuclear negotiations, according to Sejong Institute Senior Research Fellow Cheong Seong-chang.

“If North Korea's Kim was not prepared to accept the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of his nuclear programs, he would not have proposed a summit with President Trump,” Cheong said in a report.

“In exchange for the nuclear renunciation, Kim may demand the halt of the combined military exercises, as well as a peace treaty and the withdrawal of economic sanctions.”