In the midst of rising tensions, the United States and South Korea begin a significant summertime military exercise.

The exercise will boost the partners’ capability and readiness to respond to any provocations and protect against North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction by conducting multi-domain drills involving a range of assets, including land, sea, air, cyber, and space,” according to the JCS. According to an unnamed source, the government-led Ulchi civil defense practice will for the first time include a scenario mimicking a “North Korean nuclear attack” during the exercise. During a Cabinet meeting, Yoon stated that the joint practice will focus on integrating the allies’ capabilities in multiple crisis scenarios to “deter North Korea’s evolving military threats, psychological warfare, and cyberattacks.”

“We must improve our readiness to respond to North Korea’s gray zone provocations, such as the spread of false information, fake news, and cyberattacks,” Yoon stated. “Anti-state forces threatening free democracy are operating covertly in various locations,” Yoon was quoted as saying. He expressed concerns that North Korea “might seek to create social instability through violence, propaganda and agitation at the early stages of a conflict.” Pyongyang has long criticized the partners’ combined exercises as a rehearsal for an assault against it. Washington and Seoul, for its part, have denied the claim, calling their drills “defensive in nature.”