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From
strategic bombers to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the ROK-U.S. joint exercise "Freedom Shield" begins tomorrow (13). A day earlier, North Korea today announced that it had decided on practical measures, effectively announcing an "armed provocation."

Reporter Jung Yoon-sik on the report.

From the B-200 strategic bomber, which can carry nuclear missiles with a range of 52 kilometers > the < reporter,

to the MQ-9 Reaper, the most powerful unmanned attack aircraft in the U.S. military.

Following a series of recent sorties of U.S. Air Force forces on the Korean Peninsula, a 10,11-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will enter the East Sea.

This is the "Shield of Freedom," a large-scale ROK-U.S. joint exercise that will be held tomorrow.

The exercise will last 5 days, the longest ever, with no weekends as in real wartime conditions.

It included a scenario in which the ROK-U.S. coalition, which fended off a full-scale North Korean provocation at the beginning of the war, would counterattack to retake the North Korean territory and then conduct a stabilization operation.

Large-scale practical maneuver exercises, such as assault amphibious operations, which were suspended during the last government, have also been revived for the first time in five years.

North Korea is strongly opposed.

Today, a day before the exercises, Kim Jong-un delivered a meeting of the party's Central Military Committee, chaired by General Secretary Kim Jong-un, and said, "Practical measures have been decided to aggressively utilize deterrence against war."

It is understood that the decision was made to use the means of demonstrating force, such as the firing of missiles and artillery.

U.S. and South Korean military authorities are on heightened alert.

[Lee Sung-joon/Director of Public Affairs at the Joint Chiefs of Staff: We will not tolerate North Korea's provocations and will respond decisively with the overwhelming capabilities of the ROK-U.S. alliance.]

The plan is to take corresponding measures if it leads to actual provocation, but since the drill is carried out on a large scale and in duration, the level of North Korea's provocation is expected to be quite high.

(Video Interview: Hwang In-suk, Video Editing: Lee Sung-Sung)