WSJ
The 11-day joint drills, which start Monday in South Korea, are expected to feature once again jet fighters soaring in the skies, tanks rumbling down roads and thousands of soldiers simulating a conflict with the Kim Jong Un regime.
While a return to the large-scale exercises indicates that the U.S. and South Korea are normalizing their military alliance, the move will likely only encourage North Korea’s current move toward nuclear modernization, said Van Jackson, a former Obama administration Pentagon official now at New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington. For the governments in Beijing and Pyongyang, the military exercises will justify their defiance of Washington and its allies, he added.
“They will nudge China and North Korea closer together,” said Mr. Jackson, referring to the large-scale exercises.
China has expressed concern over U.S. expansion of military exercises with its allies, saying it could raise tensions with North Korea. China is likely most concerned about the U.S.’s surveillance operations conducted during the joint exercises, which can gather intelligence on North Korea’s and China’s military facilities with surveillance aircraft involved in the drills, according to security experts.