South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on the 15th that this year's Hoguk exercise, an annual field training maneuver, will run from the 19th to the 30th of this month.
The Hoguk exercise is a large-scale field training maneuver held in the second half of each year to strengthen the country's independent defense capabilities under South Korean military leadership.
"We will integrate joint forces across the land, sea and air domains to strengthen joint operability and combat realism," the JCS said. "Taking into account recent patterns of warfare and realistic threats, we will conduct realistic field training maneuvers, including the use of an actual opposing force and two-sided exercises."
The JCS added that it will "establish a firm readiness posture capable of responding immediately to any threat by conducting command post training and various tactical discussions by the JCS battle staff in parallel."
The scale of participating forces is similar to previous years, and some U.S. Forces Korea units will also take part.
Two of the seven combined field training maneuvers that were not carried out because the South Korea-U.S. combined exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield ended early in August will be held alongside this year's Hoguk exercise.
"A large number of troops and pieces of equipment will move along major roads during the exercise period," a JCS official said. "We expect some traffic congestion and noise, but we ask for the public's broad understanding and support, as this is training for national defense."