![Col. Lee Sung-jun, right, the spokesperson for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson Col. Isaac L. Taylor address a joint press conference on combined military drills at Seoul's defense ministry in Seoul on Friday. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2023/03/03/97c3c4c0-1459-4b41-ae43-9d6c0a551e41.jpg)
The South Korean and U.S. militaries will hold their annual springtime combined exercise named Freedom Shield from March 13 to 23, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the United States Forces Korea (USFK) jointly announced on Friday.
The theater-wide military drill will run parallel with some 20 other combined field training exercises including amphibious and special operations drills that will be larger in scale than the Foal Eagle exercise which was suspended in 2018.
“Freedom Shield is designed to strengthen defense and response capabilities of the alliance by focusing within the exercise scenario on things such as the changing security environment, DPRK aggression and lessons learned from recent wars and conflicts,” USFK spokesperson Col. Isaac L. Taylor told a joint press briefing, referring to North Korea by its official name.
Following the Comprehensive Military Agreement signed on Sep. 19, 2018, South Korea and U.S. have only conducted field trainings below the battalion level. Regiment level field trainings resumed in last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, and now they are returning to a theater level.
The spokespersons of the allies said that the training event symbolizes the South Korea-U.S. allied forces’ capability and will to secure combined readiness posture to protect South Korea.
The allied forces will train under the elevated alert posture in preparation for a North Korean provocation.
