China urges halt to US-South Korea military drills

USA and South Korean troops kicked off their annual drills Monday that come after President Donald Trump and North Korea exchanged warlike rhetoric in the wake of the North’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month.

US President Donald Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” after Pyongyang’s latest missile tests and tweeted that “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely”.

Top US military officials arrive in Korea for commencement of Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint exercisesSouth Korea and the US began the Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises on August 21, a move that was expected to cause tensions on the Korean Peninsula to soar. It is a “computer simulated defensive exercise created to enhance readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula”, the Pentagon said on Friday.

The allies announced last week that some 17,500 USA service members will participate in the annual drills to be held in South Korea from Monday through August 31. The US has also reduced the number of troops from the usual 25,000 to 17,500.

USA defence secretary James Mattis said the smaller troop numbers were “by design to achieve the exercise objectives”.

The activists said both Pyongyang and Washington should stop intimidating each other as the war of words created the crisis of war on the Korean Peninsula, claiming the first suspension of the South Korea-U.S. joint war games to launch talks with the DPRK.

Moon also stressed his opposition to military action against North Korea to a visiting US congressional delegation.

While there has been no official tweeted response from President Trump, the White House and Pentagon agree that military exercises shall continue as scheduled.

US Pacific Command chief Admiral Harry Harris arrived in the South on Sunday to inspect the exercises and discuss growing North Korean nuclear and missile threats. The U.S. -South Korea joint war game will last till the end of this month.

The exercise is defensive in nature, Mattis said, noting that joint exercises have been going on for decades.

Despite Kim’s words of warning the USA military confirmed the 10-day military exercises will go ahead tomorrow.

Some experts say North Korea is mainly focused on the bigger picture of testing its bargaining power against the United States with its new long-range missiles and likely has no interest in letting things get too tense during the drills.

Not surprisingly, the Global Times, China’s most belligerent English mouthpiece, reiterated a call for suspending Pyongyang’s nuclear development and the drill at the same time, citing the possibility that it will provoke the North. But it did test a submarine-launched ballistic missile during the same exercises past year and could take similar steps again. He said the military exercises are “not now on the table as part of the negotiations in any way”.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this month said Australia and the United States were “joined at the hip”, and pledged Australia would come to the aid of its ally if there was an attack by North Korea.