President Yoon Suk Yeol emphasized the need to enhance preparedness against North Korea's "gray zone" provocations and hybrid warfare as South Korea and the United States began their annual joint exercise. Yoon stated that the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise would prioritize integrating the allies' capabilities to deter North Korea's evolving military threats, psychological warfare, and cyberattacks. He highlighted the importance of strengthening readiness to counter North Korea's gray-zone provocations, such as spreading false information, fake news, and cyberattacks, and warned of potential social instability through violence, propaganda, and agitation at the early stages of a conflict. Furthermore, Yoon stressed the necessity of actively seeking methods to prevent division and bolstering people's resolve to resist, while also emphasizing the protection of transportation, communication, water, social infrastructure, and critical national facilities to maintain national security and raise war preparedness. The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, scheduled to run until August 29, entails computer-simulated war games and field training, alongside civil defense drills conducted by the Seoul government. Despite assertions from Seoul and Washington that the drills are defensive in nature, North Korea has consistently condemned them as a rehearsal for invasion and responded with weapons tests. Recent tensions have been fueled by North Korea's retaliatory action of flying balloons loaded with trash across the border in response to South Korean civic groups' dissemination of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets.