South Korea and the United States will stage their annual joint springtime military exercise next month to strengthen their combined defense posture as they are preparing for the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington to Seoul.

Axar.az informs, citing Yonhap, the Freedom Shield (FS) exercise is scheduled to take place from March 9-19, involving the field training exercise dubbed "Warrior Shield," according to the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).

South Korea is seeking to achieve the "conditions-based" handover of wartime command from the U.S. within President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term that ends in 2030.