Military exercises in the run Korea summit

washington - The US and South Korea start their annual military exercises in South Korea on April 1st. This has been announced by the US Department of Defense. The timing is remarkable, because at the end of that month a summit is planned between the South Korean president Moon Jae-in and his North Korean colleague Kim Jong-un. North Korea traditionally sees military exercises as a provocation.

Normally the exercises take place in March, but in connection with the Winter Olympics they were postponed this year. Both Washington and Seoul call the exercises, in which more than ten thousand American and 290,000 South Korean troops participate, routine. North Korean state media, however, state that they are pushing the Korean peninsula 'to the brink of war'.