South Korea will stage a new unilateral civilian-military exercise this week, replacing the larger-scale U.S.-South Korea joint drill Ulchi Freedom Guardian(UFG).  

The Defense Ministry said the inaugural Ulchi Taegeuk exercise will take place from Monday to Thursday and involve members of the armed forces, government officials and civilians.

The scaled-down exercise will combine two existing programs: the Taegeuk command post exercise led by the South Korean military and the government's Ulchi exercise, which was part of UFG.

The government-led civilian portion of Ulchi Taeguk will be held from Monday to 4 p.m. Tuesday and will feature emergency natural disaster response exercises.

This will be followed by a military command post exercise under a simulated wartime environment beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday and running through Thursday.

The ministry stressed that the new exercise is aimed at boosting the combined response capabilities of the civilian, government and military sectors to various safety and security threats.