South Korean and US troops yesterday practiced building floating bridges to ferry tanks and other armored vehicles across rivers, part of a larger joint military exercise that has angered North Korea.
South Korean attack helicopters deployed flares and armored vehicles blew white smoke screens into the air as main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles crossed pontoon bridges over the Namhan River near Yeoju, south of Seoul.
The drill involved armored “attacking” forces of the South Korean army’s 11th Mobile Division, which is participating in the 12-day Hoguk 22 field exercises, crossing bridges established by South Korean and US engineering units.
Photo: EPA-EFE
North Korea in response fired an artillery barrage into waters off its coast for the second day in a row, targeting a maritime “buffer zone” set up in 2018 to reduce tensions with the South.
Roughly 100 artillery shells were fired from South Hwanghae Province into the West Sea at about 12:30pm, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, calling the barrage a “clear violation” of the 2018 agreement.
It said none of the shells landed in South Korean waters south of the buffer zone.
Pyongyang said the latest barrage was intended to counter a “military provocation” by the South Korean army along the border earlier in the day.
South Korea and the US say the drills are defensive and necessary for deterring the North.
About 1,000 South Korean and US troops participated yesterday, with about 50 tanks and other armored vehicles, KF-16 jets, Apache and Cobra attack helicopters, and more than 140 pieces of engineering equipment such as floating bridge units, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said.
Nearby, residents water skied on the river and rode by on riverside bicycle paths.
The drills simulated a so-called wet gap crossing, military jargon for any obstacle filled with water, such as a river, said Captain Sean Kasprisin, a company commander in the US Army’s 11th Engineer Battalion, calling it “tough and realistic training.”
In a war, such operations might be required if bridges were knocked out by bombing, or if an army wanted to surprise its opponents by crossing away from established bridges or roads.
“Developing river-crossing capabilities is a key factor that can make or break wartime operations given the Korean Peninsula’s geography with many rivers,” said Lieutenant Colonel Won Seong-hoon of the South Korean 7th Engineer Brigade.
South Korea uses an older version of US-made bridging equipment, and one span was assembled using elements from each side, allowing troops to practice combining the different systems.
“A lot of rivers can vary in how far across they are, so we don’t know where we need to deploy,” Kasprisin said. “So if that length is too far, then we need to be able to work together.”
Despite the tensions with North Korea, US soldiers said they rarely had time to ponder geopolitics during the drills.
“The only thing on our mind is the training and making it realistic and effective,” Kasprisin said.
Additional reporting by AFP
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS