US, South Korea To Hold New Drills Next Week To Replace Key Resolve Exercises - Reports

US, South Korea to Hold New Drills Next Week to Replace Key Resolve Exercises - Reports

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2019) The annual command post exercises of South Korea and the United States, previously known as Key Resolve, will now be named "Dong Maeng" and will be held on March 4-12, the Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday, citing military sources.

On Saturday, the US Department of Defense said that the United States and South Korea had agreed to stop their Key Resolve and Foal Eagle series of joint exercises, following the phone talks between US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo. Meanwhile, South Korean media reported that during the phone call, the allies had also agreed to maintain robust military readiness through new command post exercises.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper, in turn, earlier reported, citing sources, that the US military intended to reduce the scale of its joint drills with South Korea in the wake of the two-day US-North Korean summit in Hanoi.