The United States and South Korea started annual war games Monday despite threats from North Korea. The exercises will consist of simulations held at command posts, involving 25,000 USA service members, including 2,500 reinforcements from overseas.
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A woman uses her smartphone as a South Korean army soldier stands at Yoido Subway Station during an anti-terror drill as part of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016.
The Korea Times reported that the president warned that Pyongyang could initiate terrorist attacks or perform military provocations against Seoul as rumors of political turmoil now surround the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un, and many people believe that he will try to keep his grip on power.
A US official told CNN earlier this month that the regime’s aggressive testing of medium- and long-range missiles – as well as its nuclear testing – makes North Korea now a “practical” threat and no longer a “theoretical” threat.
The drills will also be monitored by the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission to ensure they are in compliance with the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War, according to the Combined Forces Command statement. But the latest warning comes at a time of more tension following the defection of a senior North Korean diplomat and a US plan to place a high-tech missile defence system in South Korea.
On August 14, the Yonhap news agency cited a top official in Seoul saying that South Korea would expand its ballistic missile arsenal to be able to destroy all North Korean military installations simultaneously.
The January nuclear test heightened North Korea’s isolation as the worldwide community, backed by the North’s main diplomatic protector China, imposed substantially upgraded economic sanctions.
Andrei Lankov, a history professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University, said that while North Korea may launch some sort of provocation as a way to distract attention away from the defections, Kim is not losing its grip on power. “North Korea should suspend its nuclear and missile programs and make the right choice”. The North Korean ruler reportedly ordered attacks against South Koreans living overseas.
It said it wouldn’t speculate on why North Korea placed the mines there.
“Considering [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-Un’s character, it is very unsafe”, said the unidentified official.
What comes next on the Korean peninsula?
A South Korean official who spoke to Yonhap on the condition of anonymity said the president is looking at the bigger picture, which includes difficulties for the regime under worldwide sanctions, increasing public opposition to Pyongyang’s mass mobilization movements and the defection of elites.
Thae’s move added to Pyongyang’s fury with the defection in April of a dozen North Korean overseas restaurant workers, who it insists were kidnapped by South Korean intelligence.
Pyongyang has denounced Thae as “human scum” and accused him of a number of criminal acts, including child molestation.
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Seoul voiced regret at the aggressive tone of the KPA statement, with the Unification Ministry urging the North to Korea “break away from provocative actions”.
