Some US-South Korea joint military exercises postponed until September - South Korean military cites ”extreme heat” as reason

The US and South Korean militaries recently announced that they will begin their regular joint military exercise, "Ulchi Freedom Shield," which simulates an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, on the 18th of this month.
The exercises will be held on the same scale as last year, but some of them will be postponed until September. Military authorities have cited the extreme heat as a reason for the postponement, but South Korean news agency Yonhap News said, "North Korea has been using the South Korea-US joint military exercises as a 'war against the North'."
"The decision appears to have been made in consideration of the fact that North Korea has been strongly opposed to any joint US-South Korea military exercises, claiming that they are merely war drills," the report said.
The commentary was published through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, which criticized the exercises as "bringing a storm of worsening conditions to the Korean Peninsula." It also claimed that the scale of the exercises had expanded from the previous year, and that "the United States is demonstrating military power."
If they break records through their actions, then we will naturally have no choice but to break records through the exercise of strategic deterrence." The North Korean Foreign Ministry also issued an "official statement" stating that the joint exercises "will not induce physical conflict."
On the first day of the exercises, on the 10th, North Korea responded by launching a ballistic missile from inland in the southwest toward the Yellow Sea.
The previous administration of Yun Seok-gyol took a hard-line stance against North Korea and expanded the scale of military exercises, but the administration of Lee Jae-myung, which was launched in June,
The Lee Jae-myung administration is trying to change course. Last month, the South Korean military stopped broadcasting propaganda against North Korea near the North-South military demarcation line. The broadcasts were made using large speakers, and South Korean
The stations have been promoting the superiority of the democratic system over North Korea's political system, criticizing the North Korean regime, broadcasting news from South Korea and other countries, and playing South Korean songs.
The suspension of the broadcast, which was resumed by the previous administration last year after a six-year hiatus, was seen as a message from the Lee administration aimed at easing tensions and promoting dialogue between North and South Korea.
In response, North Korea also stopped the "noise broadcasts" it had been sending to South Korea, but Kim Yo-jo, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jung-un,
In a statement issued on the 28th of last month, Kim Yo-jong, vice director of the Workers' Party of Korea, commented on the measures taken by South Korea to suspend broadcasting, saying, "They have simply returned something that should not have been done to its former state. It is not something that should be evaluated.
"It will not be a military matter," he said. Earlier this month, the South Korean military removed all of the speakers used for the broadcast. Taking a step further than the suspension of the broadcast, the Ministry of National Defense said, "It will help ease tensions between North and South Korea."
According to an announcement by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff on the 9th, North Korea has also begun removing loudspeakers used for propaganda broadcasts to South Korea.
In her speech, Yo-jong also mentioned the joint US-South Korea military exercises scheduled to begin on the 18th of this month, saying, "Our
"The smoke from igniting gunpowder will never die down on both sides of the border due to the continued implementation of large-scale joint military exercises of an aggressive nature," he said.
The exercise is scheduled to last until the 28th, and aims to strengthen preparations to respond to nuclear, missile and drone attacks by North Korea. As with last year, about 18,000 South Korean military personnel will participate, and the US military will also participate.
The exercise will be conducted on the same scale as last year. It will consist of command post exercises (CPX) and field maneuver exercises (FTX) based on computer simulations. On the 7th, a senior South Korean military official announced that of the approximately 40 FTX exercises,
The plan calls for about 20 of these to be carried out in September. Lee Sung-jun, head of the public relations office for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "We are working on various measures, including ensuring a good training environment in the heatwaves and maintaining a balanced joint defense system."
"We took a comprehensive look at all the factors," he explained. The reason for the dispersed exercises was cited as being due to the extreme heat, but it has also been pointed out that they may have been out of consideration for North Korea, which has criticized the exercises.
Minister Chung Dong-yeon had indicated his intention to make adjustments regarding the exercises. A senior official from the Ministry of Unification told reporters on the 7th, "Easing tensions and peaceful stability are the goals of the Ministry of Unification and the Lee Jae-myung administration, and are the goals of South Korea.
"From this perspective, I hope that the ROK-US joint exercises will also contribute to easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula," he said. Attention is focused on whether North Korea will respond in some way to the postponement of some of the exercises.
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