South Korea, U.S. Delay Drills, Cite Virus Worries

Date: 16 August 2020 - 22:11

News ID: ۸۱۸۰۶

SEOUL (Dispatches) – South Korea and the United States will start their annual joint military drills on Tuesday, in what local media said was a two-day delay after a South Korean officer tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The drills will start on Tuesday, "considering the COVID-19 situation,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday.
The training, which had been scheduled to begin on Sunday, was pushed back after the positive test on Friday of the Army officer, who was to have taken part, Yonhap News Agency said.
The combined drills are closely monitored by North Korea, which calls them a "rehearsal for war.” They have been reduced in recent years to facilitate U.S. negotiations with Pyongyang over its nuclear programs.
This year’s exercises will be scaled down, not mobilizing U.S.-based troops amid COVID-19 restrictions on the travel of U.S. personnel to South Korea.
This year’s program, running to Aug. 28, will focus on a "combined defense posture,” while exercises for the transition of wartime operational control on the Korean peninsula will be "partly conducted,” the joint chiefs said in a statement.
This could delay President Moon Jae-in’s plan to take over wartime operational control from the United States before his term ends in 2022, experts say.
South Korea and the United States had cancelled their springtime drills due to the pandemic.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the street on the Aug. 15 liberation day on Tuesday, protesting against President Moon’s policies and defying a ban on rallies in the capital.
The surge in COVID-19 cases prompted authorities on Sunday to reimpose tighter social distancing curbs, and President Moon warned of "stern and strong measures” against "some churches”, calling their behavior an "unforgivable act that threatens public lives.”
South Korea accused the leader of a religious sect on Sunday of violating self-isolation rules and obstructing investigations into the country’s biggest outbreak of new coronavirus in five months.
South Korea on Sunday reported 279 new cases on Sunday, more than double the 103 reported on Friday, with most of the new infections found in and around Seoul.
The capital posted a record 146 new cases, out of which 107 were linked to Sarang Jeil Church led by Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon, a controversial pastor and an outspoken government critic.
Another Christian sect, Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was at the center of the country’s largest outbreak of COVID-19 infections in February. The secretive group was linked to 36% of South Korea’s total cases, and on Aug.1, South Korean authorities arrested its founder, Lee Man-hee, for allegedly hiding crucial information from contact-tracers.