The U.S. and South Korea will kick off large-scale spring military exercises next week with a focus on strengthening their combined defense posture against North Korea’s evolving threats, the first such drill since alliance skeptic Donald Trump’s return as U.S. president.

The Freedom Shield exercise will be held from March 10 to March 20 and will focus on boosting interoperability between the two militaries, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a press release on Thursday, and it will feature a series of live field training exercises across the land, sea, air, cyber and space domains.

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