South Korean soldiers take part in the Integrated Defense Operation in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec. 27, 2023. (South Korea Army)
SUWON, South Korea — Seoul’s metropolitan government held an urban field exercise this week with the country’s military to prepare for threats against the roughly 10 million residents from North Korean attacks, the South Korean army said.
The one-day Integrated Defense Operation in the capital city Wednesday focused on a wide range of simulated threats, including an aerial drone attack on a water purification plant, a North Korean special operations forces assault and a chlorine gas leak, according to a news release from South Korea’s army.
The exercise was held to defend Seoul from “terrorist threats” from North Korea; further efforts will be made to “strengthen our integrated defense posture to protect the lives of the people,” South Korean army Col. Choi Won-seok said in the release.
The South Korean army did not disclose how many soldiers and Seoul municipal employees took part in the exercise. Photos released by the army showed soldiers operating in streets and drilling rigs preparing to simulate a rescue of people trapped underground.
South Korean soldiers simulate a rescue of people trapped underground using a drilling rig in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec. 27, 2023. (South Korea Army)
American troops did not participate in the exercise, U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Wesley Hayes said by email Thursday.
The drill comes a day after the year anniversary of a North Korean drone incursion into South Korean airspace. Five North Korean drones flew across the Demilitarized Zone and into Seoul and Gimpo city on Dec. 26, 2022, prompting South Korea’s military to scramble fighter jets and helicopters, and ground civilian flights from airports.
None of the drones were captured or shot down, according to the Ministry of National Defense.
On Aug. 23, South Korea held its first national civil defense drill in six years. The 20-minute drill required residents to evacuate to one of 17,000 designated shelters and for cars to stop and pull over to the side of the road.
Other large-scale defense exercises are held annually in densely populated cities in South Korea, such as the Ulchi Exercise in August. Over 580,000 civil and military personnel were activated in the four-day exercise focusing on threats in urban areas, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety at the time.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a plenary meeting Wednesday ordered “civil defense sectors to further accelerate … war preparations” due to the “grave political and military” tension on the Korean Peninsula, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported the next day.
South Korean army Gen. Kim Seung-kyum, the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers in October that Pyongyang still threatened the safety of Seoul.
Of the over 700 long-range artillery systems in North Korea’s arsenal, 300 of them “constitute a threat to the Seoul metropolitan area,” Kim said during a National Assembly meeting Oct. 12.
