the largest live fire drills ever conducted by South Korea and the US

South Korea and the US will hold the largest-ever live fire exercise in their history on the 70th anniversary of their mutual defense treaty. The drills, to be held five times between May 25 and June 15, will involve F-35A stealth fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, K2 tanks, Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers, and other state of the art weapons systems. This is the first joint live fire exercise between the two countries since 2017, and will take place at the Seungjin Fire Training Field in Pocheon, northeast of Seoul. North Korea has test-fired more than 100 missiles since the start of 2022 and recently demonstrated its first nuclear-capable underwater drone and its first solid-fuel ICBM. Pyongyang considers the exercises to be 'provocations' and insists its weapons programs are defensive in nature.