Washington and Seoul plan to boost denuclearisation diplomacy with Pyongyang by further limiting this spring’s joint military drills, which have long vexed North Korea, South Korean media said, citing the country's Defence Ministry, on Tuesday.
"If diplomatic efforts are underway, we will conduct (the drills) within the bounds to be agreed upon between the South and the US," a senior Defence Ministry official was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.
They plan to go further this year by conducting regiment-level manoeuvres separately. US and South Korean battalions and their subordinate units will train together as usual, according to the military official, cited by the outlet.
Talks between the United States and North Korea on how to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula stalled last year. The US ignored the end-of-the-year deadline to come up with a new proposal that would have lifted economic sanctions on the North.
