WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd November, 2018) US-South Korean military drills 'Foul Eagle' slated for spring will be scaled back in order to give more room to diplomatic efforts on the Korean peninsula, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis told reporters.
"Foal Eagle is being reorganized a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy," Mattis said as quoted by stars and Stripes.
On November 12, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party of Korea reported that the decision of South Korea and the United States to resume their joint marine exercises threatened to undermine peace on the Korean Peninsula and contradicted agreements reached at the third inter-Korean summit.
On November 5, South Korea and the United States began the two-week Korea Marine Exercise Program (KMEP). The KMEP involves about 500 troops from South Korea's Marine Corps and the US Marine Expeditionary Force stationed in Japan's Okinawa.
The long-standing tensions on the Korean Peninsula started to ease after North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un committed to denuclearizing and held historic summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump earlier in the year.
