South Korea & US kicks off their largest joint military exercises in 5 years

South Korea and the United States yesterday kicked off their largest joint military exercises in five years. The US-South Korea exercises, called Freedom Shield, are scheduled to run for 11 days and will focus on the changing security environment.  

The drills between the two nations include a computer simulation and several combined field training exercises. South Korean officials said the field exercises would be scaled back to the size of the allies' previous



largest field training, which was held in 2018.

Meanwhile, North Korea test-fired two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine on Sunday in an apparent protest of the drills it views as an invasion rehearsal. The U.S. and South Korea say the exercises are in self-defence and are necessary to counter the rising threats from North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions.