▲ This photo shows an RC-12X Guardrail taking off at the U.S. Army base Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on March 10, 2025, as South Korea and the United States kick off their joint annual military exercise, the Freedom Shield. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) S Korea-US-joint military drills

(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S. to stage annual military exercise next month, still in consultation over field training

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with more details throughout)

By Kim Hyun-soo

SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Yonhap) -- The militaries of South Korea and the United States said Wednesday they will stage their annual joint springtime military exercise next month to strengthen their combined defense posture, but they have yet to agree on details of related field training.

The Freedom Shield (FS) exercise is scheduled to take place from March 9-19, involving the field training exercise dubbed "Warrior Shield," according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).

The allies' militaries said the upcoming drills will help further strengthen the alliance's readiness and capabilities through combined, joint, all-domain operations.

"This exercise will also serve as an opportunity to support ongoing preparations for a condition-based wartime operational transition, consistent with alliance agreement," they said in a joint statement.

South Korea is seeking to achieve the "conditions-based" handover of wartime operational control (OPCON) from the U.S. within President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term that ends in 2030.

As part of efforts for the "swift" transfer, the allies have agreed to complete the verification of Seoul's Full Operational Capability (FOC), the second part of a three-stage program to assess its capabilities to lead the allies' combined forces, by the end of this year.

A JCS official explained that this year's FS exercise will be held on a similar scale as last year, with around 18,000 participating troops.

However, the allies are likely to scale down some field training during the FS exercise compared with 2025, according to sources.

"We cannot disclose plans for field trainings, including scope or frequency, as South Korea and the U.S. are still under close coordination on the field training exercises," the official said, adding they hope to finalize talks before the drills kick off next month.

The allies put off nearly half of some 40 on-field drills during last year's annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise in August until the year-end, in what appeared to be the Lee administration's reconciliatory overtures to Pyongyang to mend frayed inter-Korean ties.

This year, the South Korean military has proposed minimizing field training during the FS period, but Washington reportedly expressed reservations, saying part of its assets have already arrived on the ground.

South Korea is seeking to create conditions conducive to the resumption of possible dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April.

North Korea has long denounced the Seoul-Washington combined military exercise as rehearsals for invasion though the allies said the drills are defensive in nature.

The South Korean and U.S. militaries conduct major combined drills each year featuring computer simulation-based command post exercises, holding the FS exercise in March and the UFS exercise in August.

Based on an all-out war scenario, these drills also serve as grounds to assess whether conditions for OPCON transfer have been met.

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