South Korea, US Delay Half of Ulchi Freedom Shield Drills to September

South Korea and the United States will stage their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise from 18-28 August, but roughly half of the 40 planned field-training events will be deferred to September, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Military officials said the adjustment follows talks aimed at fine-tuning the scale and timing of the drills, which are designed to improve combined readiness across land, sea, air, cyber and space domains. The exercise will incorporate scenarios addressing North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile programs and will also factor lessons from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The allies stressed that the exercise, which will include personnel from U.N. Command member states and observers from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, is defensive in nature. Seoul has been seeking ways to lower tensions with Pyongyang, which routinely condemns the drills as a pretext for invasion.