US Military Drills With South Korea Planned After Olympics

The U.S. and South Korea will conduct joint military drills as “normal” after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Pyeongchang end in March, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyunsoo said in a briefing Thursday.

That stance was echoed at the Pentagon, where Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, staff director for the Joint Chiefs, told reporters, “We’re deconflicting during the period of the Olympics, and exercises will continue immediately after the Olympics.”

The commitment to resume exercises, delayed from earlier this year to accommodate North Korea’s participation in the Games, came hours after Pyongyang issued an appeal to "all Koreans" at home and abroad to increase exchanges and cooperation to facilitate unification.

In a message that read more like a sermon than a propaganda dispatch -- sentences began with pleas such as “Let us” and “Let all Koreans” -- the state-run Korean Central News Agency said the regime sought a “breakthrough for independent reunification” without the assistance of other nations.

While the regime called for peace, it’s also preparing for a possible military parade on Feb. 8, the day before the opening ceremony.

The U.S.-South Korean drills are a major source of tensions on the peninsula, with North Korea using them to justify its push to develop nuclear weapons capable of striking the U.S. mainland. The defense ministry gave no details on the timing or nature of the next exercises, but any goodwill is likely to rapidly vanish if they go ahead in the weeks after the Games, and Pyongyang could restart its missile and nuclear provocations.

On Wednesday, the White House expressed concerns that Kim Jong Un’s regime is trying to take advantage of its participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics for its own propaganda and create cracks in the U.S. alliance with South Korea.

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