The United States and South Korea on Thursday concluded their annual Freedom Shield joint military exercise, after days of heightened tensions with North Korea.

The United States has begun a large military exercise with South Korea involving thousands of troops while also waging an escalating war in the Middle East.

North Koreans say military-civilian solidarity rallies have been replaced by political events since the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Cpl. Marvin Silvester Patton, who vanished during the first American ground battle of the Korean War, was laid to rest in Virginia on Monday. His brother remains missing.

North Korea on Saturday has fired about 10 ballistic missiles toward the eastern sea, South Korea’s military says, staging its own show of force as the rival South conducts a joint military exercise with the United States.