American Escape

[Anchor Lead]

U.S. forces in Korea have been conducting intermittent drills evacuating the families of American troops in the event of an emergency such as a North Korean attack. The exercise rebooted in 2016 after a seven-year absence.

[Pkg]

American nationals carrying backpacks walk toward a U.S. Air Force transport helicopter. Most of them are women and children. The backpacks contain emergency food supplies, and the American civilians' IDs are checked every time they make a transfer. This is an exercise to evacuate 17,000 family members of American troops and civilians out of the Korean Peninsula in the event of a crisis. Following the exercises held last year, U.S. Forces in Korea are again conducting this evacuation drill this year to move American civilians out to American bases in Japan. 150 family members who volunteered for the exercise are in the process of being transported from Seoul to an American base in Japan, with stops at Pyeongtaek and Daegu. The civilian evacuation drill in Korea was held concurrently with the largest ever deployment of strategic weapons. The American military has recently sent two aircraft carriers to the East Sea, and the nuclear submarine USS Cheyenne entered Busan Port yesterday.

[Soundbite] Shin Jong-woo(Korea Defense & Security Forum) : "American artillery can harm American citizens, so the exercise aims to pull them out and aggressively deploy strategic weapons on the Korean Peninsula."

The Korean military is also stepping up its vigilance as movements of a mobile missile launch pad were detected in North Korea in the past few days.