The defense forces of South Korea and the United States on Sunday started their annual joint exercises, after having postponed them and reduced their duration this year due to the current rapprochement with North Korea, the Seoul defense ministry announced.

Around 11,500 US troops and some 300,000 South Korean soldiers are set to participate in the first of the two drills, Foal Eagle, which will continue for four weeks, one month less than its normal duration. </s> (CNN) The United States and South Korea announced Saturday that annual large-scale exercises, which were a cornerstone and recent common feature of the defense relationship between the two militaries, will end and will be re-configured into smaller exercises that do not carry the same high profile as earlier versions known to have been a major irritant to North Korea

The large scale named military exercises, commonly known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, were scheduled for this spring. The joint exercises will be scaled back and done on a small unit level or even include virtual training similar to the 2018 scaled back exercises.

Defense officials have said they believe they can achieve the necessary training needs in this manner. The announcement follows a phone call Saturday between acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and South Korean Minister of National Defense Jeong Kyeong-doo.

"Following close coordination, both sides decided to conclude the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle series of exercises," a readout from the Defense Department of the phone call said. "The Minister and Secretary reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring the continued combined defense of U.S.-ROK (Republic of Korea) combined forces to meet any security challenge, and agreed to maintain firm military readiness through newly designed Command Post exercises and revised field training programs."

The US and South Korea will hold the military exercises from March 4 through March 12, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

Read More </s> SEOUL — The U.S. and South Korea commenced scheduled joint military training exercises on Sunday, according to South Korean defense ministry officials. The combined drills, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, take place as diplomatic relations have been thawing on the Korean peninsula, with a summit between the two Koreas scheduled for late April and a meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un anticipated for May.

More than 11,500 U.S. soldiers and nearly 300,000 Korean counterparts will take part in the four-week exercises. Foal Eagle, the largest annual joint military exercise in Korea, usually runs for about two months, but its start was delayed this year at the request of South Korea until the Olympics and Paralympics Games in Pyeongchang were completed.

North Korea has consistently protested the annual combined exercises as a military provocation, but the U.S. stressed that the drills are purely for defensive purposes.

A statement from the Pentagon announcing the resumption of Foal Eagle, read: “The United Nations Command has notified the Korean People's Army on the schedule as well as the defensive nature of the annual exercises.”

The statement also noted that the drills would operate “at a scale similar to that of the previous years.”

However, the U.S. appears to be downplaying its show of military might this year, as no plans for deploying strategic assets such as nuclear subs or supercarriers have been announced. Last year’s drills included a visit from the supercarrier USS Carl Vinson and involved the U.S. Army’s contentious Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system, deployed in the South Korean town of Seongju.

The USS Wasp, an 843-foot long amphibious assault ship, is expected to join the exercises, Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

North Korea has a long history of provocative behavior during joint military exercise. During Foal Eagle last year, the hermit nation launched several medium-range ballistic missiles that splashed down off the coast of Japan.

Inter-Korean diplomatic relations are currently at the highest level they’ve been in years, on a roll since January, when the two Koreas met ahead of the Olympic Games. North Korea sent a large delegation to the Winter Games in February, and the two sides agreed earlier this week for their third-ever summit meetingto be held on April 27 at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone that divides the peninsula.

Continuing the policy of engagement, a group of South Korean musicians, including K-pop stars Red Velvet, traveled to Pyongyang this weekend for live performances in the North Korean capital.

North Korean dictator Kim has also begun taking more of a role on the international stage, making his first visit abroad as leader last week, when he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. He also met with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in Pyongyang on Friday, after which Bach said that North Korea was committed to participating in the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Summer Games and 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

A report from Chinese state media this week claimed that Kim said he was “committed to denuclearization” on the Korean peninsula. A South Korean envoy also said earlier this month that Kim had expressed a willingness to talk to the United States about denuclearization.

However, Japanese defense minister Taro Kono warned at a lecture on Saturday that North Korea appeared to be preparing for another nuclear test, citing satellite images showing removal of soil from a tunnel where previous tests were held. </s> South Korea and the United States will scale down and shorten annual joint military exercises in light of a diplomatic thaw with Pyongyang, a report said today.

The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills held every spring regularly infuriate the nuclear-armed North, which usually condemns them as preparations for invasion and responds with provocations of its own, ratcheting tensions higher.

But the two Koreas and the US are in the throes of an Olympics-led rapprochement, with South Korea announcing plans for a summit between Seoul and Pyongyang next month, and US President Donald Trump said to be meeting the North's leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May.

The joint exercises were delayed to avoid clashing with the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South last month.

But according to a senior official in Seoul's presidential office, Kim told a visiting South Korean envoy last week that he would "understand" if the drills went ahead.

Citing a military source, the South's Yonhap news agency said Foal Eagle, a field exercise involving tens of thousands of troops, will start in early April but be halved in length from two months to one.

US strategic weapons such as B-1B bombers and aircraft carrier strike groups, which have been often deployed to and near the Korean peninsula in times of high tension, will not take part this time, Yonhap said.

Key Resolve, a command post exercise using computer-based simulations, will kick off in the coming week, Yonhap said.

Earlier, US Lieutenant-General Kenneth McKenzie, director of the joint chiefs of staff, told a briefing that the US conducts a "robust series of exercises" with South Korea every year.

"I don't think this year will be any different than those that have occurred in the past," he added.

A spokesman at the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command said the date, duration and other details of the annual Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises will be announced next week.

North Korea has made no official comment on Kim's proposed face-to-face meetings with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. </s> South Korea and the United States will scale down and shorten annual joint military exercises in light of a diplomatic thaw with Pyongyang, a report said Friday.

The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills held every spring regularly infuriate the nuclear-armed North, which usually condemns them as preparations for invasion and responds with provocations of its own, ratcheting tensions higher.

But the two Koreas and the US are in the throes of an Olympics-led rapprochement, with South Korea announcing plans for a summit between Seoul and Pyongyang next month, and US President Donald Trump said to be meeting the North's leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May.

The joint exercises were delayed to avoid clashing with the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South last month.

But according to a senior official in Seoul's presidential office, Kim told a visiting South Korean envoy last week that he would "understand" if the drills went ahead.

Citing a military source, the South's Yonhap news agency said Foal Eagle, a field exercise involving tens of thousands of troops, will start in early April but be halved in length from two months to one.

US strategic weapons such as B-1B bombers and aircraft carrier strike groups, which have been often deployed to and near the Korean peninsula in times of high tension, will not take part this time, Yonhap said.

Key Resolve, a command post exercise using computer-based simulations, will kick off in the coming week, Yonhap said.

Earlier, US Lieutenant-General Kenneth McKenzie, director of the joint chiefs of staff, told a briefing that the US conducts a "robust series of exercises" with South Korea every year.

"I don't think this year will be any different than those that have occurred in the past," he added.

A spokesman at the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command said the date, duration and other details of the annual Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises will be announced next week.

North Korea has made no official comment on Kim's proposed face-to-face meetings with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. </s> SEOUL: South Korea and the United States will scale down and shorten annual joint military exercises in light of a diplomatic thaw with Pyongyang , a report said today.The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills held every spring regularly infuriate the nuclear-armed North, which usually condemns them as preparations for invasion and responds with provocations of its own, ratcheting tensions higher.But the two Koreas and the US are in the throes of an Olympics-led rapprochement, with South Korea announcing plans for a summit between Seoul and Pyongyang next month, and US President Donald Trump said to be meeting the North's leader Kim Jong Un by the end of May.The joint exercises were delayed to avoid clashing with the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South last month.But according to a senior official in Seoul's presidential office, Kim told a visiting South Korean envoy last week that he would "understand" if the drills went ahead.Citing a military source, the South's Yonhap news agency said Foal Eagle, a field exercise involving tens of thousands of troops, will start in early April but be halved in length from two months to one.US strategic weapons such as B-1B bombers and aircraft carrier strike groups, which have been often deployed to and near the Korean peninsula in times of high tension, will not take part this time, Yonhap said.Key Resolve, a command post exercise using computer-based simulations, will kick off in the coming week, Yonhap said.Earlier, US Lieutenant-General Kenneth McKenzie, director of the joint chiefs of staff, told a briefing that the US conducts a "robust series of exercises" with South Korea every year."I don't think this year will be any different than those that have occurred in the past," he added.A spokesman at the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command said the date, duration and other details of the annual Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises will be announced next week. North Korea has made no official comment on Kim's proposed face-to-face meetings with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. </s> U.S., South Korea kick off annual joint military exercises after month-long delay

South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual joint military exercises on Sunday after they were delayed by about a month for the Winter Olympics and to help create conditions for a resumption of talks between North and South Korea, Reuters reported.

The Foal Eagle field exercise, which usually involves combined ground, air, naval and special operations troops, will continue for a month. The computer-simulated Key Resolve will be held for two weeks starting in mid-April.

A Pentagon spokesman said in March the two joint drills would involve about 23,700 U.S. troops and 300,000 South Korean forces. Military officials in Seoul have said the scale of the exercises would not go beyond those seen in previous years.

The Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises are usually held every year around March but they were postponed this year until after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which started in February and ended last month.

North Korea, which has traditionally accused both South Korea and the United States of practising invading the North during joint military drills, has remained quiet on the issue. </s> SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of -- South Korea and the U.S. are ending their massive springtime military drills as part of efforts to support diplomacy aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.

The decision announced by both countries Sunday came three days after a high-stakes summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam without any agreement.

The Pentagon says the U.S. and South Korean defence chiefs decided to conclude the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle series of exercise.

It says the allies agreed to maintain firm military readiness through newly designed command post exercises and revised field training programs.

North Korea has called the allies' drills an invasion rehearsal and responded with its own costly military exercises. </s> SEOUL, March 20 (UPI) -- South Korea and the United States have decided to resume their joint military drills next month, while reassuring North Korea that the exercises will be "defense-oriented."

The South Korean military announced Tuesday that Seoul and Washington's defense ministers agreed to launch the annual Foal Eagle and Key Resolve drills on April 1, after they were postponed to avoid an overlap with the Pyeongchang Winter Games period.

Earlier this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in asked to hold off the exercises until after the Olympics and Paralympics Games in a bid to defuse tensions with North Korea and convince it to participate in the sporting event.

The North has long called for the scrapping of the drills, deeming them a rehearsal for invasion.

However, ahead of Seoul and Washington's respective summits with North Korea, the two allied forces appeared more mindful of Pyongyang.

Seoul says the United Nations Command notified North Korea's Korean People's Army on the schedule as well as the defensive nature of the annual exercises.

Pentagon spokesman Christopher Logan also said in a statement that are defense-oriented and there is no reason for North Korea to view them as a provocation.

He said the drills were not a response to any specific North Korean provocations or the current situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Some 12,200 U.S. troops and 10,000 South Korean soldiers will take part in the month-long Key Resolve drill, which include command and control exercises based on computer simulations.

The Foal Eagle exercise will kick off on April 23 with about 11,500 U.S. troops and 290,000 South Koreans involved in field training.

While the scale of the drills will be similar to those of previous years, the Foal Eagle drill will be a month shorter compared to last year.

According to Yonhap, South Korean officials denied that the drills will be "low key" this year.

"The purpose of the drills and the size of participating troops will be similar to those in previous years. The program will also be similar," a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official told reporters.
The governments of the United States and South Korea begin their Foal Eagle and Key Resolve military drills.