Despite protests from North Korea, the US and South Korea launch joint military exercises

The annual exercise will “reflect realistic threats from all areas, such as the increasing missile threat from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, GPS jamming, cyber attacks and lessons learned from recent armed conflicts,” both military officials said last week.

The official name of North Korea is “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”.

Pyongyang has repeatedly condemned the allies' joint exercises as preparation for an invasion and insists that its own nuclear and missile programs are a necessary form of deterrence.

On Sunday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the Ulchi Freedom Shield “the most offensive and provocative exercise of aggression in the world.”

“We will continue to make decisive efforts to build strong defense capabilities to credibly defend our state sovereignty, security, interests and territorial integrity, and change the security environment of the Korean Peninsula and the region in our favor,” said the statement by the official Korean news agency Central News Agency.

The United States and South Korea describe their joint exercises, which have expanded and evolved in response to the North Korean threat, as defensive in nature. This year's Ulchi Freedom Shield will include 48 field exercises, including amphibious landing and gunnery drills – up from 38 in 2023.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called on Monday for increased military preparedness against North Korea, which he described as the “most reckless and irrational country” in the world.

“As we have seen in the war in Ukraine and in the conflicts in the Middle East, war can break out at any time,” he said during a cabinet meeting. “The nature of war has also changed compared to the past. It is being fought in a hybrid form that combines regular, irregular and cyber warfare, as well as public opinion and psychological warfare with fake news.”

Last week, Yoon outlined a vision for unification with North Korea and offered to open a working group for dialogue.

The North has not responded to the plan, the South Korean Unification Ministry, which is responsible for inter-Korean relations, said on Monday.

“There is no official response from North Korea,” ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam said during a press conference. “We will monitor North Korea's reaction without making any predictions.”

Pyongyang's reaction to the Ulchi Freedom Shield has so far been relatively muted, Koo added.

“North Korea's response to the Ulchi exercises is not as strong and tough as in previous years,” he said. “But today is the first day of the exercise, so we will see how it goes.”

Last year, North Korea tested strategic cruise missiles and launched short-range ballistic missiles in exercises simulating a “scorched earth” nuclear attack on the South.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula remain high, and Cold War-style psychological warfare has occurred in border areas in recent months.

North Korea has sent thousands of balloons filled with waste paper, shredded clothing and dung to the South since early June. One of them dumped garbage on Yoon's presidential residence. Seoul has since resumed broadcasting propaganda loudspeakers near the DMZ, blasting K-pop songs and South Korean news and information across the border.