Seoul [South Korea]: South Korea and the United States started a combined air exercise on the 1st. According to a military source, Korea and the US will conduct a five-day joint comprehensive air combat training from the 1st to the 5th. In this joint exercise, some 100 aerial forces from both countries, including F-15K and KF-16 jets from South Korea and F-16s from the US, are participating in. However, there are no military assets were deployed from the US mainland, and the training is conducted by dividing the participating forces into battalion-level or lower depending on the training mission. Korea and the US have regularly held the air exercise, ‘Vigilant Ace,’ every December, but this exercise has been replaced by scaled-down comprehensive training since 2018, when the relationship between South and North Korea has improved. As the air exercise is scaled-down compared to the ‘Vigilant Ace’ and conducted as a closed training, there are some criticisms that South Korea cares North Korea. Military authorities from both countries have not announced the exercise schedule and it is reportedly conducted in a ‘low-key’ manner. As North Korea continues to criticize ‘double standards’ over military activities, some predicts that it will also oppose the joint air exercise this time.
