Defense minister Shin Won-sik on Wednesday visited the U.S. Forces Korea's military bunker complex, Command Post Tango (CP TANGO), to inspect the annual South Korea-U.S. combined Freedom Shield military exercises. 

Shin said through the joint drill, South Korea and the U.S. must further boost their capacity to neutralize North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile networks and to overpower enemy forces in all areas, including on land, at sea and air as well as in cyber space and the electromagnetic spectrum. 

The Freedom Shield exercises, which began last Monday, is set to conclude on Thursday. 

Also on Wednesday, Shin visited the headquarters of the Army’s Special Warfare Command and conveyed words of encouragement to personnel there. 

The minister said that if North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wages war, the command must become a world-class unit that swiftly takes out the enemy’s leadership. 

He made the remark as he cited that the command is the key unit of the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation, an operational plan to incapacitate the North Korean leadership in a major conflict.