Today, the US and south Korea begins live military exercises against north Korea after a 4 year pause. This year’s drills are unprecedented in scale, upping the tensions on the Korean peninsula.
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The US & south Korea typically hold joint military exercises 2x a year. Exercises can involve up to 300k soldiers & rehearse invasions of north Korea and assassination of north Korean leadership.
nytimes.com/2017/09/12/wor…
The first US-south Korea joint exercises took place in 1955, 16 months after the Armistice agreement was signed.
Since then, the war exercises have expanded and advanced, and north Korea has developed nuclear weapons.
This year, south Korea and the US restore field drills and conduct expanded exercises.
For the past few years, the US and south Korea had canceled some drills and scaled others back to computer simulations, to reduce tensions and because of COVID.
upi.com/Top_News/World…
South Korea’s new president, Yoon Seok-yeol has worsened tensions with north Korea.
Yoon met with Biden just weeks into his presidency, agreeing to large-scale joint military exercises. Yoon has also supported preemptive missile strikes against north Korea.
For decades, north Korea has opposed these joint exercises, arguing that they increase tension.
North Korea hasn’t tested nuclear weapons since 2017 in good faith. Now many predict their next test will happen in response to expanded military threats from the US and south Korea.
Meanwhile Koreans in the south have been protesting the US military aliance.
On August 13th, thousands of protesters in Seoul called for the suspension of joint military exercises. They also demanded the dissolution of the US-south Korea alliance and the withdrawal of US forces.
US war exercises expand to all of Asia.
Recently, the US gathered 25 countries for RIMPAC naval exercises. Officially, these exercises are not aimed at any particular country, but they were a clear show of force against China and north Korea.
The US threatens enemy countries through military exercises while destroying occupied lands.
The US navy occupation has poisoned Hawaiian’s drinking water in Oahu, desecrated sacred lands in Guam, and destroyed soft coral ecosystems in Jeju.
US-south Korea joint military exercises jeopardize peace, putting Koreans on both sides of the peninsula at risk of renewed war.
The Korean people stand against military exercises and imperialist aggression!
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