South Korea holds live-fire drills near border with North Korea
(Baonghean.vn) - According to Yonhap news agency, the South Korean military said that on March 14, it held live-fire tank drills near the inter-Korean border, with the participation of US military engineers, in the context of the two allies' annual large-scale spring exercises coming to an end.
The drills took place as part of a week-long training at the Seungjin Fire Training Area in Pocheon, just 25 kilometers south of the inter-Korean border, and were combined with the Freedom Shield exercise, which is said to be aimed at strengthening deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
About 300 personnel participated in the field training, mobilizing K1A2 tanks and K21 armored vehicles from the Army, among other equipment, as well as M1150 assault vehicles from a joint South Korean-US engineering unit.
The South Korean and US militaries have established joint combat teams in an effort to enhance their combined operations capabilities.
During the exercise, K1A2 tanks and K21 armored vehicles fired at targets while South Korean and US engineers removed obstacles to clear the way for troops to take the initiative, according to the South Korean Army.
North Korea has long denounced joint military exercises by the US and South Korea as rehearsals for an invasion, while Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive in nature.
Earlier, on March 13, North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong-un had directed a training competition between tank units, where he drove a newly unveiled tank. This move, according to Yonhap, was a show of force ahead of the US-South Korea drills.
The computer-simulated Freedom Shield exercise, which began on March 4 and has now concluded, was a series of simultaneous, real-world exercises between the United States and South Korea that they said were aimed at boosting their readiness to counter threats from North Korea.
The South Korean Navy also held a three-day joint medical evacuation drill from March 14 with a scenario of mass casualties in wartime.
The exercise involved one South Korean helicopter and two US helicopters to transport the injured from Deokjeok Island off Incheon, west of Seoul, to the Daejeon Armed Forces Hospital in Daejeon, 139 km south of Seoul, according to the South Korean Navy.
