The U.S. and South Korea will begin their joint annual army training this week, Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said Sunday. But the spread of a coronavirus epidemic has forced allies to reduce a low-profile educational program that is basically computer-simulated war scenarios.
Training on Tuesday, August 28, may further annoy North Korea, which describes the formation of allies as invasion trials and has threatened to abandon stalled nuclear talks if Washington persists in what he considers “hostile policies” toward Pyongyang.
The drills also occur at a sensitive time after President Donald Trump brabably complained about the charge of keeping 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea to oppose North Korea’s threats. So far, allies have been unable to signal a new charge-sharing agreement after the last expires at the end of 2019.
The workouts involve so-called education at the combined command post, which focuses on PC simulations to prepare the two armies for war scenarios, such as a wonderful attack from North Korea.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff did not specify how many infantrymen would participate. But it’s clear that the duration would be shorter than the summer workouts of past years, which involved tens of thousands of infantrymen on both sides, and PC simulations combined with box training. This time, the coronavirus pandemic limited the number of U.S. troops that can be brought from abroad.
The U.S. and South Korean armies canceled their spring training after a Covid-19 outbreak in the southern city of Daegu and nearby stabilized in April.
But South Korea is now facing a resurgence of the virus in Seoul’s densely populated metropolitan area, home to some of the country’s 51 million inhabitants. This forced U.S. forces in Korea to designate the capital and its banned scenario for non-staff members. The 279 new cases reported across South Korea on Sunday are the highest jump since early March.
There have been about 150 Covid-19 infections among U.S. troops stationed in South Korea since February, leading to Gyeonggi Province near Seoul last month to bravocously call for the August drill cancellation. Gyeonggi includes the city of Pyeongtaek, the headquarters of the United States Army.
Allies have reduced much of their combined educational activity after Trump unilaterally suspended large-scale cash education with South Korea after his first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018. Trump gave the impression of adopting North Korea’s classic vision of exercise, and criticizes them as a “provocative” cash leak.
Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have failed since the collapse of Trump’s meeting with Kim in February last year in Vietnam, where Americans rejected North Korea’s request for relief from primary sanctions in exchange for a portion of its nuclear capabilities.
North Korea responded to last year’s summer drills by stepping up its short-range missile tests and unleashing verbal criticism of South Korea, which it had lobbied to restart nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
“O item.title”