TOKYO, South Korea and the US launched a joint military drills on Monday to bolster their joint defense capabilities against North Korean military threats, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Sunday. The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise based on an all-out war scenario is set to take place from Aug 19-28, featuring main computer simulation-based command post exercise concurrent field training and civil defense drills, JCS added. JCS said that the exercise will include 48 field training events, such as amphibious landing and live-fire drills, up from 38 field events conducted last year, the number of brigade-level exercises will also increase to 17 this year, compared with four from the previous year. It would further strengthen the allies' capability and readiness to respond to any provocations and defend against North Korea's weapons of mass destruction by conducting multi-domain exercises utilizing a variety of assets, including land, sea, air, cyber and space. The exercise got under way in th e face of growing concerns over Pyongyang's continued weapons development, highlighted by its launches of 37 ballistic missiles this year alone and heightened cross-border tensions from the North's recent trash balloon campaign. Source: Kuwait News Agency