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Defense Minister Song Yong-moo speaks during a hearing of the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee on Feb. 20. (Yonhap News)

Addressing the question of when postponed joint South Korea-US military exercises will be resumed, Minister of National Defense Song Yong-moo said on Feb. 20 that the two sides’ defense ministers would “make a precise announcement after the Paralympics end on Mar. 18 and before April.”

Song’s explanation came during a hearing of the National Assembly National Defense Committee that day in response to independent lawmaker Lee Jung-hyun’s question on when the exercises would be carried out.

“We have postponed the exercises in keeping with the Olympic spirit,” Song explained.

“South Korea and the US have decided to maintain the current stance until the Paralympics end and the exercises begin, and to adopt an NCND (neither confirm nor deny) approach until the announcement on what to do afterwards,” he continued.

When asked by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Jin-pyo whether North Korea requested postponement of the exercises as a condition for participating in the Olympics, Song replied that this was “not true.” He also addressed concerns about fissures in the South Korea-US alliance over the postponement, saying that was “not a millimeter of deviation” in the alliance.

Meanwhile, Voice of America reported on Feb. 20 that USFK Commander Vincent Brooks had submitted a briefing report to the US House Committee on Armed Services on Feb. 14 confirming that joint military exercises with South Korea would continue in the future.

“We will execute the two major theater-level command post exercises and one theater-level field training exercise each year,” Brooks said.

The “command post exercises” refer to Key Resolve in February and Ulchi-Freedom Guardian in August, while the “field training exercise” refers to Foal Eagle, which is carried out alongside Key Resolve.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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