US pushes ahead with provocative war games in South Korea
By
Peter Symonds
21 August 2017
In the midst of high tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the US is provocatively proceeding with joint military exercises with South Korea, involving tens of thousands of troops and aimed at training and preparing for war with North Korea.
Last year’s annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian drills involved 25,000 American military personnel and 50,000 South Korean troops backed by warships and warplanes. The number of US personnel involved this year is 17,500, but US Defence Secretary James Mattis declared yesterday that the reduction had nothing to do with the tense situation the Korean Peninsula.
The exercises are reportedly based on the joint US-South Korean Operations Plan (OPLAN) 5015, adopted in 2015, that involved pre-emptive strikes against North Korea and so-called “decapitation” raids aimed at eliminating the top leadership in Pyongyang. General Joe Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, last week declined to say whether more “strategic assets” such as long-range B-1 bombers would be involved. The exercises will run until August 31.
The US is proceeding with the war games despite repeated calls by China for them to be called off, in return for North Korea putting its missile testing on hold and both sides agreeing to talks to end the dangerous confrontation. The Trump administration has flatly refused to cancel joint military exercises with South Korea, claiming they are purely defensive in character.
The Pyongyang regime warned yesterday in the official Rodong Sinmun that the joint exercises were “like pouring gasoline on a fire” and would worsen tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Such “reckless behavior [was] driving the situation into the uncontrollable…