Hundreds of thousands of US and South Korean troops are to take part in massive annual war games on the Korean Peninsula, despite warnings by North Korea that the resumption of the drills would jeopardize a nascent détente between Pyongyang and Seoul.
Nearly 24,000 US forces as well as 300,000 South Korean military service members are set to participate in the Foal Eagle field military drills, due to begin on Sunday, Reuters reported Friday citing the US Defense Department.
The Foal Eagle has historically been two months long, but South Korea and the US have decided this year to scale down the drills to one month in what seems like a minor attempt at deescalation with Pyongyang.
Japan’s Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who welcomed the planned resumption of the joint war games on Friday, said, however, that the scale of the drills would be the same as past years.
“It’s our understanding that the exercises will be of a similar…