South Korea and the United States wrapped up their annual Freedom Shield (FS) exercise Thursday aimed at strengthening their combined readiness posture, amid North Korea’s verbal threats and the launch of some 10 ballistic missiles. The major springtime exercise, involving realistic wartime scenarios reflecting trends in modern warfare, drew to an end after an 11-day run, their militaries said in a joint statement. “The Republic of Korea and the United States successfully concluded FS 26, reaffirming a strong combined defense posture and further enhancing the alliance’s ability to conduct operations across all domains,” the statement said, referring to South Korea by its formal name. This year’s exercise focused on assessing conditions to achieve the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington to Seoul as South Korea seeks a “conditions-based” handover within President Lee Jae Myung’s five-year term ending in 2030. Some 18,000 troops took part in the drills, a scale similar to the previous year, but the number of field training exercises halved to around 22, compared
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