YEONCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) – South Korea and the United States wrapped up on Thursday 11 days of annual joint military drills known as Freedom Shield, which included staging a river-crossing exercise close to the heavily militarised border with North Korea.
The militaries of the two countries reaffirmed their alliance and strengthened their defensive posture during the drills, U.S. Forces Korea and South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The river-crossing exercise, which was held in Yeoncheon, an area near the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, involved some 600 troops, as well as 100 armoured vehicles and aircraft, according to South Korea’s defence ministry.
“This training provided an opportunity for the brigade soldiers to experience the importance of the ROK-U.S. alliance and maximize the interoperability of river-crossing equipment,” Major Jung Byung-hyuk of the South Korean army said after the river-crossing exercise.
ROK refers to the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.
South Korean and U.S troops had built a 180-metre (196.85 yards) floating bridge in order to allow armoured vehicles to cross a river, according to the ministry.
“Regardless of politics, when asked the soldiers in these formations both U.S. and ROK are standing side by side ready to support the U.S.-ROK alliance,” Lieutenant Colonel Brent Kinney of the U.S. Army said when asked about the current political situation in South Korea.
South Korea has been suffering its worst political crisis in decades after President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly imposed martial law in December. The Constitutional Court is due to rule on whether to uphold his impeachment by parliament in coming days.
Pyongyang has long demanded a halt to U.S.-South Korea joint exercises, branding them a prelude to an invasion.
North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles earlier this month, hours after condemning the South Korean and U.S. militaries for launching the drills that the North called a “dangerous provocative act.”
(Reporting by Daewoung Kim and Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Ed Davies)
