Joint drill season on the Korean Peninsula is usually ripe for discussion, and this spring is proving to be no exception. Interest in the U.S. and South Korea’s ongoing joint command-post drill Key Resolve and the overlapping field-training exercise Foal Eagle is rooted in a simple question: will the situation surrounding them be as tense as in 2013?

Last year, North Korea had a severe allergic reaction to U.S. -ROK military exercises. As part of those regularly scheduled manoeuvres, B-52s, B-2s, F-22s, destroyers, and nuclear-powered submarines all made cameos around the Peninsula.

Ostensibly in retaliation, North Korea threatened nuclear strikes