The South Korean amphibious assault ship ROKS Dokdo transits alongside the USS Bonhomme Richard and other ships during last year's Ssang Yong exercise. The annual drill is planned to include smaller units of Marines this year. (Courtesy of Michael Achterling/U.S. Navy)
The decision to downsize a U.S.-South Korean amphibious drill slated for March was made last year and has nothing to do with recent demands by North Korea, officials from both countries said Tuesday.
The Ssang Yong, or “Double Dragon” exercise, will likely have several thousand fewer servicemembers participating than it did last year.
The annual exercise includes Navy, Marine Corps and South Korean personnel staging an amphibious landing. It included 7,500 Marines and thousands more sailors last year in what Pentagon officials called the largest-scale effort since it began in recent years.
This year’s exercise will focus on smaller units than the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which comprises thousands of Marines in ground, aviation and fleet roles. Figures for U.S. involvement have not yet been released.
“The Ssang Yong drill hasn’t been carried out on brigade level every year,” South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters. “Generally … it has been scaled up in even-numbered years and reduced in odd-numbered years.”
Some South Korean media reports speculated that North Korean demands to halt U.S.-South Korean bilateral exercises as a precondition for talks might have contributed to the smaller exercise, a notion that both sides ridiculed Tuesday.
Plans for Ssang Yong, which falls under the umbrella of the larger Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises, were made more than a year ago, U.S. officials said.
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