Seoul has no intention of giving up its practice of conducting joint military exercises with the United States due to the sharply negative reaction of North Korea towards them.
“South Korea is conducting exercises with the purpose of defending itself. Every country has the right to conduct exercises independently or together with another country. Our exercises with the U.S. are conducted traditionally and regularly… The government of South Korea has the right to defend its country and adopt corresponding measures. For this reason the practice of conducting exercises will continue according to plan,” a source in the South Korean government has said.
“The military exercises of South Korea and the United States are of defensive nature. These are the drills pursued by allies. We always report on military drills before starting them,” the source went on.
According to the source, the recent incident when the South Korean patrol was blown up by a land mine in a border district, which is what South Korea is blaming North Korea for, has to prove the importance of such exercises.
