Have You Ever Heard About Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) of Korea?

What is UFS?

As one of the largest annual military events between the Republic of Korea and the U.S., Freedom Shield (UFS) aims to strengthen their capacity to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

UFS is an 11-day, joint, combined, and interagency exercise event runs from today (August 21) to August 31, 2023.

What is the goal of the UFS 2023?

One is to support the wartime preparedness exercises of government ministries. And other is to improve the ability to conduct national total war. These include: North Korean nuclear readiness, cyberattack and terrorism response, public safety support, government exercises that are reinforced by real-world drills.

Schedule of the UFS 2023

This year’s UFS will be held in two parts over the course of 11 days in Korea.
Part 1 : Held in conjunction with government exercises (Eulji Exercise) from Aug 21-25
Part 2 : Held by the military alone from Aug 28-31

Participants of the UFS 2023

All United Nations Command Member States are scheduled to participate in different capacities, with 10 members—Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, and the U.S.—providing extra exercise augmentees.

In addition, as required by the Armistice Agreement, the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (Sweden and Switzerland) will oversee and supervise the exercise.

Don’t be shocked if you are in Seoul on Aug 23, 2023

At 2pm on August 23rd, the civil defense drill in case of an air attack will be conducted in the city of Seoul.

The drill will last 20 minutes, with 15 minutes of air raid warning, 5 minutes of alert warning, and 20 minutes of dismissal.

When an air raid alert is issued for the entire city of Seoul at 2pm, citizens should quickly move to the nearest shelter or basement of the building.

Meanwhile in North Korea..

North Korea has reacted to U.S.-South Korea military exercises by calling them “war drills to invade North Korea.”

On Aug 11-12, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured major munitions factories and encouraged them to increase their weapons production capacity. This was the second time in less than a week that the North Korean leader visited a munitions factory, emphasizing its “war readiness” posture.