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>The Defense Ministry on June 1 rejected reports that it conducted the joint firepower exercise without involving United States Forces Korea (USFK), calling those accounts distortions of the facts.
At a briefing in Seoul, the ministry’s deputy spokesman, Lee Kyung-ho, said reports claiming the large-scale exercise excluded USFK were false.
Lee noted the large-scale firepower exercise has been held 13 times since 1977, with U.S. forces participating in five of those instances. In more than half the cases, the Republic of Korea military conducted the drills on its own. He said this year’s exercise was planned from the outset as a South Korea–led combined drill involving the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Officials designed it to underscore self-reliant defense, demonstrate advanced capabilities and highlight the strength of the domestic defense industry, while showing the public the military’s firm readiness.
Lee said framing the event as a deliberate exclusion of USFK misrepresents the facts. He emphasized that Seoul and Washington carry out a balanced program of combined exercises throughout the year under established annual training plans, and maintain a robust combined-defense posture through close communication and cooperation. He expressed regret over reporting that distorts facts or selectively highlights details in ways that could harm the South Korea–U.S. alliance and the combined defense posture.
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