South Korea, US postpone annual military drills due to virus

SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean and U.S. militaries have postponed their annual joint drills out of concerns over a virus outbreak.

Thursday’s announcement came after South Korea reported 21 cases of a new coronavirus in its military and the U.S. military reported one case among its 28,500 troops in South Korea.

The announcement was jointly made by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. military in South Korea.

With the ROK government’s declaration of the highest alert level of “severe” on COVID-19, the ROK-US Alliance decided to postpone combined command post training until further notice. The decision to postpone the combined training was not taken lightly. ROK-US Alliance Announcement on Combined Training. In light of the ROK government’s declaration of the highest alert level “severe” on COVID-19, the ROK-US Alliance made the decision to postpone the combined command post training for the ROK-US.

Kim Jun-rak, a spokesman at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the allies will put off their drills in the first half of this year until further notice.

Kim said JCS chief Park Han-ki first proposed putting off the drills out of concerns of safety of South Korean and U.S. troops.

He said Robert Abrams, the chief of the U.S. military in South Korea, accepted Park’s proposal after agreeing on the seriousness of the virus outbreak.