[Yonhap Photo]
SEOUL -- South Korean and U.S. troops will resume annual joint military exercises in April that were suspended after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a surprise peace overture to dispatch athletes, cheerleaders and high-level delegations to last month's Winter Olympics, military authorities said Tuesday.
Foal Eagle, an annual field training exercise, will be staged for four weeks from April 1, starting with an eight-day landing drill by American and South Korean marines, according to the South's defense ministry. Key Resolve, a command-post war game, will take place for about two weeks from mid-April.
There will be no visible change in the number of soldiers to be mobilized for the exercise, but this year's field training period will be cut half, compared to the previous exercises which usually ran for two months.
South Korea will maintain low-key publicity, and talks are under way on the dispatch of American strategic assets like aircraft carriers, the ministry said, indicating they could not be deployed for political reasons. Kim agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit in April, followed by another summit with U.S. President Donald Trump by May.
At talks this month with Trump in Washington, President Moon Jae-in's security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, conveyed Kim's words that he "understands" that U.S. and South Korean troops would continue their regular joint military exercises.
There are about 28,000 US troops stationed in South Korea. Washington and Seoul insist their joint military exercises are purely defensive in nature, but Pyongyang has condemned them as provocative rehearsals for an attack on the nuclear-armed country.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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