South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Thursday ordered an update of the military’s operational plans to deal with North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats, his office said.
Yoon gave the instructions on his first visit to a military bunker in Seoul that would serve as a command post in the event of a war.
His visit coincided with the start on Monday of military exercises by the South Korean and US armed forces, the biggest in years.
The annual summer exercises have been renamed Ulchi Freedom Shield and are expected to end on September 1. They involve the first field training between the two countries since 2017, after being scaled back amid the Covid-19 pandemic and under Yoon’s predecessor, who sought to improve relations with North Korea.
Yoon pointed out that this year’s exercises were conducted under an altered scenario and the operational plans reflect North Korea’s evolving threats.
“We urgently need to prepare measures to secure the lives and property of our people, including updating operational plans against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats that are becoming a reality,” Yoon told military commanders during the visit.
North Korea has carried out missile tests at an unprecedented pace this year and is ready to carry out its first nuclear test since 2017 at any time, Seoul officials said this week.
The isolated, nuclear-armed North fired two cruise missiles from the west coast last week after South Korea and the United States began preliminary training for the exercises.
Pyongyang has long criticized the combined exercises as “hostile politics” and a rehearsal for the invasion.
Yoon, who has pledged to increase drills and general preparedness against the North, called for strengthening the military’s independent capability to counter North Korean missiles, while bolstering extended US deterrence, including its nuclear umbrella.
He also ordered commanders to accelerate plans to establish the so-called “Kill Chain” system, designed to launch preemptive strikes against missiles from the North and possibly its senior leadership if an imminent attack is detected.
Source: CNN Brasil
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