A postponed South Korea-US joint military exercise will resume April 1, South Korean and the US militaries said Tuesday, with its field-training Foal Eagle to be halved in length from two months to one.

South Korea’s Defense Minster Song Young-moo and his US counterpart Jim Mattis decided to resume the annual computer-simulated Key Resolve exercise and field training Foal Eagle exercise, according to Seoul’s Defense Ministry and US-led Combined Forces Command.

The two ministers agreed last month the resumption date will be announced between March 18 -- the end of the Paralympic Games end -- and April 1.

The North Korean military was notified of the resumption of the military exercise through the United Nations Command. The command repeated its usual assertion that the exercise is “defensive in nature.”

During his meeting with South Korean special envoys last week, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un said he would “understand” if the drills went ahead.

The announcement of the military drill date came amid a flurry of speculations over the scale and timeline of the exercises that have strained inter-Korean relations. North Korea has denounced the drills as preparation for war.

The allies’ militaries have stressed that the exercises would be “consistent” with previous ones, but the field drills are widely expected to be scaled down to set a peaceful mood for the inter-Korean and US-North Korea summits.

It is widely expected in Seoul that the field-training Foal Eagle exercise will be held on a “lower profile” without US strategic assets such as nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which were deployed during last year’s exercises.

Last year’s Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises were considered to be the largest ever, involving US strategic assets, such as the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and F-35B stealth fighters.

(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)