South Korea said on Monday that no decision has been made about military drills with the US but that they should not cause tension after North Korea advised the South not to perform the exercises amid signs of warming ties.
South Korea and the United States hold military exercises regularly, primarily in the spring and summer although North Korea has long denounced them as a war drill. According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, the actual date, scope, and other elements of the exercises have yet to be established and are problems that must be resolved by South Korean and US officials.
South Korea urges improvement of ties with North
Boo Seung-Chan, a spokesman for the South Korean government, said that Seoul and Washington are looking into the present condition of the pandemic, diplomatic measures to restrict North Korea's nuclear goals, and military readiness between the two countries. Seoul sees the restoration of communication lines as a beginning point for resuming long-suspended contacts between the Koreas, according to Lee Jong-Joo, a spokesperson for the Unification Ministry.
She stated that Seoul will work diligently to resume negotiations with North Korea but is not in a hurry. After North Korea approached South Korea and the United States in 2018 for talks on its nuclear program, inter-Korean relations blossomed.
After its more significant nuclear negotiations with the United States failed in 2019, North Korea severed relations with South Korea. The two Koreas reconnected phone and fax connections last Tuesday after a 13-month break, increasing optimism for better ties between the separated Koreas.
However, other experts believe North Korea is just trying to use South Korea to persuade the US to make concessions before and when the stalled nuclear talks between the two countries start, ABC News reported.
Kim Yo-Jong's statement appears to be directed solely at South Korea, lending credence to the theory that North Korea's decision to reopen communication lines aims to pressure Seoul to persuade Washington to make concessions while nuclear diplomacy remains stalled.
Regular drills between Seoul and Washington have long been a source of hostility on the Korean peninsula. North Korea accused Seoul of staging an invasion and reacting with missile launches. Both South Korea and the United States have said that their exercises are defensive in nature.
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US-South Korea's military drills
South Korea and the United States have postponed or scaled back several of their drills in recent years to assist diplomatic efforts to address the North Korean nuclear problem or due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When asked about the prospects for next month's summer drills, Boo Seung-Chan, a spokesperson for South Korea's defense ministry, said at a briefing Thursday that Seoul and Washington were considering factors such as the pandemic's current status, efforts to achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, and their combined military readiness.
The US-led diplomatic effort to persuade North Korea to relinquish its nuclear program in exchange for economic and political benefits has stalled since a second summit between Kim Jong-Un and then-President Donald Trump collapsed in early 2019 due to disagreements over sanctions, as per The Independent.
South Korea's administration, under President Moon Jae-in, previously shuttled between Pyongyang and Washington to organize the first meeting between Trump and Kim.
On the other hand, North Korea reintroduced harsh rhetoric towards South Korea, urging it not to intervene in its relations with the US. Pyongyang also shut down communication connections with Seoul and demolished an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory in June of last year.
According to some experts, Pyongyang blamed Seoul for the failure of the second Kim-Trump summit. It was unhappy with Seoul's unwillingness to break free from Washington and reinvigorate delayed cooperative economic projects stifled by sanctions. Following the reopening of communication lines between the two Koreas on Tuesday, speculation of larger reconciliation measures such as another meeting between Kim Jong Un and Moon swiftly circulated throughout South Korea.
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