U.S. and South Korea practice live-fire drills

Despite North Korea’s repeated threats to joint military exercises, South Korea and the United States on Thursday began the largest live-fire maneuver in their history. For his part, Kim Jong Un is preparing to launch a spy satellite to “counter threats.” Divided into five phases, the joint military exercises between South Korea and the US began on Thursday, within the framework of the 70th anniversary of the alliance between the two countries and with the main objective of testing their “containment” capabilities against possible aggressions. Near the fortified border with North Korea, at the Seungjin Firing Range located in Pocheon, the shells fired at the targets simulating a massive attack by North Korean forces. Thus, 2,500 troops from the South and the United States participated in the exercises, which will be repeated four times until mid-June. The maneuvers include the use of F-35A invisible fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, K2 battle tanks and multiple missile launchers. A few months ago, North Korea had said that “the country considers preparations for a war of aggression” to the exercises between the two military forces. Recently, Kim Jong Un announced that construction of his first military spy satellite was finished and gave instructions to “ensure that it is launched on the planned date.”

Original source in Spanish