Hundreds of activists in the United States protested to stop the launch of the 25th Freedom Shield war games between the military forces of the US and Republic of Korea (ROK), involving armed forces from other countries. Nodutdol for Korean Community Developments, under the US Out of Korea campaign, led the demonstrations on March 1, alongside widespread protests in South Korea on that day.

Freedom Shield 25 is scheduled from March 10 to March 21 where the countries will conduct 17 joint war games, up from 10 war games in 2024, in South Korea. These large-scale war games were started in 1976 with the aim of heightening tensions between South Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The war games are presented as a “defensive exercise” but include large-scale training to strengthen the “interoperability” of US and South Korean military forces. US imperialism is now using it to further strengthen military presence in the Asia-Pacific region against rival imperialist China.

The US and South Korea are expected to use powerful classes of weapons in these war games. Thousands of soldiers will also participate for training in the use of heavy bombers, submarines and aerial weapons.

Nodutdol and its allied groups in the protests demand the US to immediately stop its militarization in South Korea and the escalation of war in the country. Demonstrations were launched in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

In New York, more than 200 people gathered. No less than 250 individuals participated in the program in San Francisco while 150 protested in Los Angeles. Filipino migrants in the US led by local chapters of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) joined these actions.

More than 100 US-based organizations signed and endorsed the US Out of Korea Campaign statement calling on President Trump to address their demands, primarily the cancellation of Freedom Shield 25.

“We stand in solidarity with the South Korean people’s call to end all US-South Korea joint military exercises, and we further demand an end to the US military occupation in Korea,” said Winter Oh from Nodutdol.

The group also hailed the hundreds of thousands of South Koreans who protested on the same day to push for the ouster of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for declaring martial law and other crimes against the people. The massive protest’s demands also included the call to stop Freedom Shield 25.

Bayan Northeast’s Ket Maarte said “the Filipino people know all too well what it is like to have our land, sea, and people exploited for the interests of US imperialism.” That’s why, she said, it is very important and imperative for Filipinos to show solidarity in the struggle for the genuine liberation of Koreans and Filipinos.

“Because if the US falls in one, the US falls in all,” she said.