South Korea and the US officially launched an 11-day annual joint military exercise code-named“Freedom Shield” Monday, Yonhap news agency reported. However, the exercise was carried out amid protests.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff quoted by the Yonhap News Agency reported that, the exercises include a computer-simulated command post exercise and joint field maneuver training in the fields of land, sea and air, Cyberspace and space. However, by the 6th morning when two South Korean warplanes took part in joint military exercises mistakenly dropped 8 MK-82 unguided bombs on residential areas, the impact of mobile field exercises will no longer carry out live-fire training.
South Korean Air Force 10, announced the 6th incident occurred in the exercise of mistaken aircraft explosion preliminary results, and apologize to the public. The Air Force reiterated that the accident was caused by the pilot entering the wrong coordinates. Nineteen civilians and 12 military personnel were injured and 152 buildings were damaged. The The Hankyoreh said calls were growing for the joint exercises to be suspended because of civilian injuries. Citizen groups in Huangchuan County said that the south korea-us joint military exercises could exacerbate the war crisis on the Korean Peninsula. With the increase in the number of military exercises, “Having clearly seen the damage to peace on the Korean Peninsula and the harm to the security of the Republic of Korea caused by the unconditional pursuit of the hegemonic strategy of the United States, it is imperative to stop the military exercises at the cost of people’s lives and security and to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula”. South Korean media said that citizen groups in Daejeon, Incheon and other places held a press conference there on the 10th, calling for the suspension of the joint south korean- military exercises. They said that under the circumstances that the president is facing a national political vacuum due to the impeachment trial, more attention should be paid to people’s livelihood than to military exercises.
According to a report by the Korean Central News Agency on the 10th, the press bureau of the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a press statement on the 9th, condemning the large-scale“Freedom Shield” joint military exercises held by the United States and South Korea, it called the move an“Extremely dangerous act of provocation”.