VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The United States and South Korea again conducted large-scale air exercises starting last Monday (30/10), using 130 fighter aircraft from both countries to simulate wartime operations for 24 hours.

This annual exercise, called Vigilant Defense, ran until Friday (03/11/2023), featuring variants of the F-35 stealth fighter from the United States and South Korea, among other aircraft.

This exercise aimed to improveoperational capabilities between the militaries of the two countries by carrying out major air missions,such as air-to-surface live fire exercises, defensive counter-air operations, and other emergency training.

According to the South Korean military, it would maintain the best combat readiness to immediately respond and harshly punish any provocation by the enemy through intensive training by simulating actual situations.

The joint military drills between South Korea and the United States took place as North Korea increased military cooperation with Russia. This has been criticized by the United States and its Asian allies as an attempt by Pyongyang toenhanceits military capabilities in return for arms support to Moscow.

Previously, North Korean Foreign Minister,Choe Son Hui expressed Pyongyang's "strong desire" to expand ties with Russiaat the weekend. According to Minister Choe,relations between North Korea and Russia willbecome a "strong strategic" element if security in the regionisthreatened.

North Korea has long condemned joint drills between the United States and South Korea as a rehearsal for invasion and evidence of hostile policies by Washington and Seoul.

In 2023, North Korea carried out a number of weapons tests which made relations with South Korea and the United States (US) increasingly tense.

Additionally, North Korea's legislature has incorporated the country's nuclear weapons status into law. This means that Pyongyang's nuclear power development policy is madeasthe permanent basic law of the State. A policy that the United States,of course,opposes.

The United States and its traditional ally,South Korea have an annual joint military exercise agenda that has been going on for years. However, this time the exercise took place when tensions between the two sides were increasing, both due to issues on the Korean Peninsulaandtheir opposing positions on the conflict in Ukraine and Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Hopefully,both parties can restrain themselves so that armed conflict does not occur.