Foal Eagle
Foal Eagle has been a source of friction with the government of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and domestic ROK critics.
The United Nations Command also reassured the Korean People's Army at general officer-level talks that these exercises, conducted annually in or around March, are purely defensive in nature[citation needed] and have no connection to ongoing or current events.
Hamilton also participated in a combined joint navy-coast guard force to provide defense ring around the harbor of Pusan.
[11][12][13][14] Foal Eagle 1999 took place between 26 October and 5 November 1999, and that year's exercise scenario involved defending against infiltration by North Korean special operation forces into the rear area.
[18] RSOI/Foal Eagle 2003 took place between 3 March and 2 April 2003 amid rising tensions between the United States and North Korea who threatened to withdraw from the Korean War Armistice.
[19] RSOI/Foal Eagle 2004 took place between 21 and 28 March 2004, it featured amphibious warfare training exercises between the Republic of Korea Marine Corps and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) and the Essex Amphibious Ready Group which were supported by P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft from Patrol Squadron One (VP-1).
[21] RSOI/Foal Eagle 2006 took place between 26 and 31 March 2006, and is designed to improve the commands' abilities to defend the ROK and includes a full range of equipment, capabilities and personnel.
[31] Key Resolve/Foal Eagle was held in the aftermath of the sinking of the ROK corvette Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea.
[34] Special Operations Command Korea conducted airborne jumps with a helium blimp and gondola at the ROK Drop Zone prior to the official start of RSOI/FE 09.
The operational force was based at another simulation facility, the Warrior Training Center at Camp Casey, South Korea.
Other simulation organizations included the Korea Air Simulation Center on Osan Air Base, South Korea's Army Battle Command Training Program in Daejeon, and the III Marine Expeditionary Force's Tactical Exercise Control Group, based at Camp Courtney in Okinawa, Japan.
Separately from the Key Resolve, the Foal Eagle exercises took place from March 1 to April 30, and it included about 11,000 U.S. forces plus South Korean troops in division-sized or smaller unit operations.
The United Nations Command, Military Armistice Commission, Korea, informed the Korean People's Army through its Panmunjom Mission of the 2013 exercises' dates and its non-provocative nature on 21 February 2013.
[47] Foal Eagle 2013 consisted of separate but inter-related joint and combined field training exercises conducted between 1 March and 30 April 2013.
[46][48][49][50] Key Resolve 2014's was a command-post exercise involving wartime scenarios conducted on computer systems which was held between 24 February to 3 March 2014.
[51] A third exercise code-named Ssang Yong ("Double Dragon") was bilateral amphibious assault drills held between 27 March 27 and 7 April 2014.
[39] On February 28, 2011, a North Korean military's statement threatened a "merciless counteraction as engulfing Seoul in sea of flames" while the KCNA urged "direct fire at sources of the anti-DPRK psychological warfare to destroy them on the principle of self-defense.
"[41] Also, on February 28, 2011, 30 South Korean activists demonstrated outside one of the military exercise control centers at Seongnam while issuing a press statement that "strongly urge South Korea and the U.S. to stop fooling Koreans and the world and to stop the exercise which aims to invade North Korea and to overturn the regime.
The army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to fight a war with them ...[42]During Key Resolve/Foal Eagle 2013, North Korea threatened to abandon the Korean Armistice Agreement, arguing the exercises threatened North Korea with nuclear weapons and that the U.S. was unwilling to negotiate a peace treaty to replace the armistice.
The alleged incursion occurred just as South Korea was joining the United States in bilateral Key Resolve/Foal Eagle 2014 military exercises.
[62] Following a 2018 summit meeting with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that semiannual "war games" with South Korea (taken to mean certain joint exercises including Foal Eagle) would halt.
[65][66] No fly zones were also established along the DMZ to ban the operation of drones, helicopters and other aircraft from coming within 10 to 40 kilometres (6.2 to 24.9 mi) away from the MDL.
