The launch of military maneuvers by the US and South Korea jeopardizes the fragile dialogue with Pyongyang

Seoul and Washington have once again sparked Pyongyang's outrage, despite being on notice. The two allies began their annual joint military exercises on Tuesday after receiving a warning from Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, 10 days ago that carrying it out would hamper dialogue on the peninsula. In clear proof of the irritation that this situation has caused, this Wednesday morning, as it happened the previous afternoon, the direct telephone line that communicates daily to the governments of the two Koreas has been ringing without anyone answering on the phone. office north of Parallel 38.

The North Korean state news agency KCNA published a statement on Tuesday in which Kim Jong-un's right-hand man accused the South Korean authorities of "perfidious behavior" for continuing with the military exercises with the United States, even knowing that they put The progress achieved after the reestablishment of telematic communication between the two neighboring countries, at the request of Pyongyang, on July 27, is in jeopardy.

North Korea had disconnected in June 2020 this link that emulates the red telephone line established by the United States and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War in order to solve urgent matters and avoid at all costs that a provocation could become a armed conflict.

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In his letter, Kim Yo-jong also blames the White House for forcing the execution of these "war drills" when "the international gaze is focused on how events unfold in the peninsula."

In his own words, these military actions show that "the 'diplomatic engagement' and 'unconditional dialogue' promoted by the current US administration are a facade to cover up its aggressive nature."

Since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953), which ended with the signing of an armistice instead of a peace treaty, the US military has kept around 28,500 troops on South Korean soil. In March of this year, the United States and South Korea agreed that Seoul would pay 1,183 billion won annually (about 873 million euros, 13.9% more than in 2019) to Washington for the presence of these foreign troops in their territory, alleging the need to expedite a strategy in the face of the possible threat from the North Korean nuclear program.

According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, this summer's practices have started with the so-called "crisis management personnel training", designed to inspect the response of its military to potential unexpected pre-war incidents.

This exercise, which will last until August 13, precedes the combined command exercise, which accounts for the bulk of summer maneuvers and which will be held from August 16 to 26.

The latter will consist mainly of a computer simulation.

In order to cope with the increase in COVID-19 cases in South Korea, the

on-site

tests will

not involve soldiers based in the United States.

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Hours after Kim Yo-jong's comments were made public, US State Department spokesman Ned Price emphasized during a daily press conference that the workouts have a "purely defensive nature" and that Washington "does not host any. hostile intention towards North Korea ”. Price reiterated that Joe Biden's government supports inter-Korean dialogue and reconciliation, and that it will continue to cooperate with Seoul to achieve that end.

The joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, canceled in 2020 due to the global health crisis, had been reduced in recent years with the aim of supporting diplomacy aimed at the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Of the three meetings between then-US President Donald Trump and North Korean President Kim Jong-un, no conclusion was drawn and the talks have been stalled since June 2019. Although both the North Korean authorities and the of the United States claim to be open to dialogue, everything indicates that no one is willing to be the first to take the step.

The criticisms launched by the sister of the supreme leader of North Korea have also been added by those of Kim Yong-chol, a North Korean general and politician who played a fundamental role in the aforementioned summits. The KCNA agency collects a letter this Wednesday in which it affirms that its country will make South Korea "immediately realize the serious security crisis that it will have to face due to its bad decision" and in which it adds that Seoul has missed an opportunity to improve relationships.

The Unification Ministry, a body under Seoul, has responded to Kim Yong-chol's comments stating that this is a repeat of Kim Yo-jong's speech from the previous day, but adds that movements that Korea will be closely monitoring. North perform in the near future. The Moon Jae-in government, for its part, has issued a statement in which it states that "the escalation of military tension on the Korean peninsula does not benefit anyone."

In parallel, the armed forces of China and Russia have also launched joint military exercises in China's Ningxia region, bordering Xinjiang, where the West denounces human rights abuses against the Uighur minority. The exercises, which began on Monday and will run until Friday, will be attended by 10,000 troops from the Air and Ground Forces of both nations. Moscow, for its part, has been conducting tests with soldiers from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at the same time, which have also generated discontent among the nations in the area.