South Korea, US kick off joint air exercise
(VOVWORLD) - South Korea and the United States kicked off a combined annual air exercise Monday. It is meant to be a low-key affair backing ongoing diplomacy to resume dialogue with North Korea.
 US and South Korean jets take part in an air exercise. (Photo: South Korean Ministry of National Defense) |
For the five-day exercise, the allies mobilized some 100 air assets each, including F-15K and KF-16 jets from South Korea and F-16s from the US, the source said, noting no military assets were deployed from the US mainland this time.
The allies have regularly held the air exercise in a scaled-down, subdued manner since they suspended the large-scale Vigilant Ace exercise which supported peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea has long denounced the allies' military drills as a war rehearsal for an invasion and used them as an excuse for provocations.