The large-scale exercises involving tens of thousands of ground troops are a perennial source of tension between the two Koreas

SEOUL, South Korea – The United States and South Korea announced Tuesday, March 20, that their annual joint military drills would go ahead next month, with no significant downsize in scale despite an ongoing diplomatic thaw with North Korea. Barely a month after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he "couldn't rule out" US forces physically boarding ships caught violating US sanctions against North Korea, RT is reporting that, despite the recent thaw in relations between the US, South Korea and North Korea, the annual "Foal Eagle" and "Key Resolve" joint military exercises involving US and South Korea forces will begin April 1. In a brief statement, the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his South Korean counterpart, Song Young-moo, agreed to go forward with the two sets of exercises, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, "at a scale similar to" that of previous years. Manning added: "The UN Command has notified the Korean People's Army (North Korea's army) on the schedule as well as the defensive nature of the annual exercises." The larger of the two exercises, Foal Eagle, is a field training exercise with about 11,500 U.S. troops and about 290,000 South Korean troops, according to a Pentagon spokesman, Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Logan. “In accordance with the previous practices, the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission will observe the exercises to confirm their compliance with the armistice agreement.” Tensions on the Korean peninsula have eased since last year resulting in inter-Korean talks and the North sending a high-level delegation led by Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, and athletes to the Winter Olympic. Earlier this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in asked to hold off the exercises until after the Olympics and Paralympics Games in a bid to defuse tensions with North Korea and convince it to participate in the sporting event.
South Korea and the United States announce that the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve military drills will start on April 1 and last for four weeks.