Seoul, 22 August 2022 (dpa/MIA) - The United States and South Korea started their biggest joint summer military manoeuvres in five years on Monday amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula. A South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed the exercises began as planned, but gave no details on how many soldiers were involved and what military equipment was being used. The US has some 28,500 soldiers stationed in South Korea as a deterrence measure against threats from self-declared nuclear power North Korea. The Ulchi Freedom Shield manoeuvres include training with computer simulations, joint field exercises and a large civil defence exercise through South Korea. They are planned to end on September 1. Seoul is anticipating a fierce response from Pyongyang to the 11 days of manoeuvres. North Korea's leadership regularly accuses the US of preparing for an attack with its joint military exercises with South Korea. Washington and Seoul reject this and emphasize that the exercises are to improve defence capabilities. Tensions in the region have ratcheted up this year after a series of North Korean tests involving nuclear-capable missiles. In recent years the US and South Korea reduced the scope of several exercises or cancelled them completely for diplomatic reasons. The 2018 summer manoeuvres were cancelled in a bid to raise the chances of negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme. However, talks have stalled since a failed US-North Korea summit in February 2019 in Vietnam.