Seoul: Adjusting South Korea's joint military exercises with the United States may be discussed if the necessary conditions and environment are met, the unification ministry said Monday. "I think they could possibly be discussed if conditions and the environment come into place in the future," ministry spokesperson Yoon Min-ho stated, addressing inquiries about any potential change in the ministry's stance on discussing adjustments to the allies' drills with other government agencies.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has supported the idea of adjusting major military exercises between Seoul and Washington. This comes as Seoul intensifies its efforts to revive long-stalled dialogue with Pyongyang. In response to these military exercises, Pyongyang has accused the allies of conducting "an exercise for an invasion."

At a press conference held the previous day, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac dismissed the notion of reducing the scale of the military exercises as a strategy to engage North Korea on denuclearization matters. "While there are many possible options, we are not directly considering using the Korea-U.S. joint exercises as a card," Wi said.

Yoon refrained from directly commenting on Wi's statements, noting that "Combined South Korea-U.S. exercises have important implications not only militarily but also for inter-Korean relations and the security situation on the Korean Peninsula."