The Combined Forces Command (CFC) Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL) exercise is no more; it has been replaced by the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise, which started on 18 August and ends on 22 August. The change is more than just the name as this year the South Korean military took the lead role as a step towards taking operational control in 2012. This year the exercise is only a week, compared to the usual two weeks.

UFG is not about polishing warfighting skills, but more a test of command, control, and communications functions in wartime conditions, using computer-simulated scenarios of possible contingencies on the peninsula. The goal is to familiarize participants in the processes involved and identify problems, for example with command structures or communications systems. North Korea has declared the exercise a proactive act:

“The Korean People’s Army will not stand idly by as the bellicose forces in the U.S. and the South mount the Ulchi Freedom Guardian as conservative U.S. hard-liners brand us a rogue state again and erase a series of progress made on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula,” the spokesman said.

While the name has changed, North Korea is still faithfully playing its part.

Update: Some text from a 2006 post on the namesake of the exercise…

The South Korean portion of the exercise name, Ulchi, is in honor of a Koguryo general, Ulchi Mundok (을지문덕):

. . . was a noted military leader of early 7th century Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Often numbered among the greatest heroes in Korean military history, he defended Goguryeo against the Sui Chinese.

Mundeok was born in the mid-6th century and died sometime after 618, although the exact date is unknown. At the time of his birth, the kingdom of Goguryeo had grown to a powerful and belligerent empire, constantly warring with its neighbours, Chinese states to its north and west, and its fellow Korean kingdoms Silla and Baekje to its southeast and southwest respectively.

Image from here.