Seoul: South Korea's Air Force announced on Thursday that the joint large-scale air exercise with the United States will be shortened to one week in consideration of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit scheduled for next week.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the semiannual Freedom Flag exercise was initially planned to span two weeks, commencing on September 27. However, both nations have agreed to postpone the start of the joint drill until after the APEC summit, which is set for October 31 and November 1, and conduct it over a one-week period instead.

The Freedom Flag exercise was inaugurated last year as a replacement for the regular large-scale air exercises between the allies, which included Korea Flying Training in the first half of the year and Vigilant Defense in the second half.