UFS penetrated all the way to Seoul?... Army General: “Practice assuming the worst case scenario”

(Gyeryong = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Cheol-seon = Army Chief of Staff General Kim Gyu-ha responded to the criticism that the North Korean army advanced right in front of Seoul during the war game during the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS, Ulchi Freedom Shield) joint ROK-US joint exercise last August, which assumed an all-out war on the Korean Peninsula.

On the 19th, General Kim attended the National Defense Committee's audit of the Army Headquarters held at Gyeryongdae and said, "Combined exercises are conducted based on a script and assuming various situations."

President Kim added, “This was done based on the assumption of various situations, and it did not happen because the actual power was not properly demonstrated.”

Lee Sang-ryeol, commander of the Army Ground Operations Command, also appeared before the National Assembly and said, "Combined exercises are conducted in a variety of exercise scenarios," and added, "The stronger and more difficult to overcome scenarios, the better. This is because we can develop the ability to overcome them from normal times."

He added, "We have been deployed to the northern part of the metropolitan area, and we have also been behind it. In this scenario, North Korea's military power, which was stronger than before, flowed into the metropolitan area, causing some difficulties, but we were able to repel the enemy."

On this day, People Power Party lawmaker Seong Il-jong said that in a UFS simulation last August, as a result of the South Korean military's commander-in-chief leading the ground defense operation, the North Korean military broke through Paju and Goyang and advanced to the vicinity of Seoul. He said, "The capital, Seoul, was almost in danger. What kind of wartime operational control transfer are they going to do with this result?"

UFS is a theater-level ROK-US joint command post exercise (CPX) assuming an all-out war situation on the Korean Peninsula, and is divided into Part 1 (defense) and Part 2 (counterattack).

This year's UFS was originally scheduled to be held for 11 days from August 17th to 27th, but following U.S. President Donald Trump's order to reduce the exercise, only the first part of the exercise, which involved repelling the North Korean military's attack, was held for 5 days.