SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korean peace activists have urged Seoul and Washington to stop the joint military exercises, which they said only serve to escalate military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The combined forces of South Korea and the United States on Monday launched Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise scheduled to last until Aug. 28, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The 11-day UFS exercise is an annually-staged summer-time military exercise featuring field maneuvers, a computer-simulated command post exercise and civil defense drills.
South Korea has claimed that the UFS exercise is defensive in nature, but the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has denounced it as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion.
The Korea Peace Action said in a statement that the UFS exercise, seen as one of the most hostile acts towards the DPRK, had only served to heighten military, political tensions on the peninsula.
The civic group urged Seoul and Washington to stop the military drills and create conditions for dialogue with the DPRK, stressing that hostile South Korea-U.S. joint military drills cannot be compatible with the restoration of inter-Korean relations.
In his speech on Friday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said his government would take consistent measures to reduce tensions and restore trust with the DPRK.
Lee, who took office in early June, said Seoul and Pyongyang should immediately restore trust and revive dialogue through actions, not words.
The Lee government blocked individuals from flying balloons loaded with anti-DPRK leaflets across the inter-Korean border and stopped propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers along the border.
A group of 21 senior activists said in a statement that the past inter-Korean talks started with the halt or the delay of the South Korea-U.S. military exercises, emphasizing that conditions should be set to de-escalate military tensions and launch dialogue and cooperation between the two Koreas.
The activists noted that the joint military drills had only increased military tensions on the peninsula and served as an obstacle to inter-Korean dialogue, calling for the Lee government to listen to the earnest voice of civil society for peace and stability on the peninsula.
Earlier this month, three student activists staged a protest rally against the military drills in front of the U.S. embassy in Seoul, according to local media outlets.
They were arrested by the police in violation of the law on assembly and demonstration, which requires any protester to report to the police at least 48 hours before an outdoor assembly or demonstration.
The Korean Peninsula technically remains at war as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with armistice, not peace treaty. ■