SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean defense chief said Wednesday that nothing has been decided yet upon whether to delay the springtime war game with the United States next year.
There have been local media speculations that the joint annual war games between South Korea and the United States could be delayed to avoid the coincidence of the war games with South Korea-hosted winter sports event.
Defense Minister Song Young-moo told a plenary session of the parliamentary defense committee that nothing has been decided on it yet.
Local media speculations said the South Korean military was considering consultating with the U.S. side to delay the Key Resolve command post exercise.
The PyeongChang Winter Olympics is scheduled to be held from Feb. 9 to Feb. 25 next year at the namesake city in the country's eastern province of Gangwon. The Paralympic Games will follow from march 9 to March 18.
The South Korea-hosted winter sports event was widely forecast to coincide with the U.S.-South Korea spring war games as the joint military exercises tend to kick off in mid-March every year and last by the end of April.
In 2017, the Key Resolve computer-simulated exercise between combined forces of South Korea and the United States kicked off in mid-March. It was followed by the Foal Eagle filed training exercise that continued by the end of April.
Rep. Kim Hak-yong of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party said at the parliamentary defense committee session that he was told the springtime joint war games would be delayed to the period of April 18 to May 3 next year.
In response, the defense minister said he had never heard of it before.
Seoul now feared that if the joint military drills with the United States were conducted during the Winter Olympic period, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) might resume provocation, re-escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier this year, the DPRK test-fired ballistic missiles in protest against the U.S.-South Korea war games. Pyongyang denounced it as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion.
