South Korea-US drill cut short by a month: Seoul

Seoul, March 20 

A delayed joint military exercise between South Korea and the US will be cut short by a month, a Seoul defence ministry spokesman said today, as the diplomatic thaw with North Korea intensifies.

“The Foal Eagle exercises will be held for a month in April due to a delay caused by the Olympics and as each military has its own schedule,” the spokesman told AFP.

Last year the drills were conducted for two months through March to April. This year’s exercises were delayed to avoid clashing with the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South last month.

The Pentagon said the North Korean military had been notified about the schedule for the drills by the United Nations Command.

“Our combined exercises are defence-oriented and there is no reason for North Korea to view them as a provocation,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan said in a statement.

The South Korean official said consultations were underway over whether US strategic assets such as nuclear-powered aircraft carriers or bombers would be deployed for the drills.

Logan said the two joint drills would involve about 23,700 US troops and 300,000 South Korean forces.

He said they were not in response to any specific North Korean actions or the current situation on the Korean peninsula. — Agencies