Annual war games threaten peace talks with North Korea
Source: Agencies |
August 17, 2011, Wednesday
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THE US and South Korea yesterday began joint war games that North Korea has warned could choke budding diplomacy and drive the Korean peninsula to war.
After months of hostility and threats, diplomats from the US and the two Koreas have held talks meant to restart long-stalled negotiations to persuade the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.
But the 11-day annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises make clear that Seoul and Washington still view Pyongyang as a threat.
The US has 28,500 troops regularly stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korean attack. The US military said this year's drills will take place on the Korean peninsula, the US mainland and in the Pacific, involving more than 80,000 troops from South Korea, the US and seven other countries that sent forces to fight the North in the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea, which labels any joint exercises by the allies as preparation for war, has warned for weeks that the exercises could obstruct continuing diplomatic efforts to ease tension through dialogue.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is ready for both dialogue and war," North Korea's official media said yesterday.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency carried a commentary saying the exercises show South Korea's offer of dialogue is "nothing but a cynical ploy to mislead public opinion."
Last month, a senior North Korean diplomat visited New York and met US officials to discuss ways to restart six-nation nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks. The meetings came after envoys from the two Koreas held cordial talks on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Indonesia.
Despite the diplomacy, tension remains high on the Korean peninsula, largely stemming from the North's bombardment of a frontline South Korean island that killed four people last November. The South also holds the North culpable for the deaths of 46 sailors on a South Korean warship that sank in March last year.
General James Thurman, chief of US forces in South Korea, said Seoul and Washington are applying lessons "garnered by the alliance's recent experiences with North Korean provocations on the peninsula and past exercises."
The drills, which seek to mimic various enemy attack possibilities, are computer-assisted and led by officers conducting war games inside command posts separated from the troops.
After months of hostility and threats, diplomats from the US and the two Koreas have held talks meant to restart long-stalled negotiations to persuade the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.
But the 11-day annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises make clear that Seoul and Washington still view Pyongyang as a threat.
The US has 28,500 troops regularly stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korean attack. The US military said this year's drills will take place on the Korean peninsula, the US mainland and in the Pacific, involving more than 80,000 troops from South Korea, the US and seven other countries that sent forces to fight the North in the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea, which labels any joint exercises by the allies as preparation for war, has warned for weeks that the exercises could obstruct continuing diplomatic efforts to ease tension through dialogue.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is ready for both dialogue and war," North Korea's official media said yesterday.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency carried a commentary saying the exercises show South Korea's offer of dialogue is "nothing but a cynical ploy to mislead public opinion."
Last month, a senior North Korean diplomat visited New York and met US officials to discuss ways to restart six-nation nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks. The meetings came after envoys from the two Koreas held cordial talks on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Indonesia.
Despite the diplomacy, tension remains high on the Korean peninsula, largely stemming from the North's bombardment of a frontline South Korean island that killed four people last November. The South also holds the North culpable for the deaths of 46 sailors on a South Korean warship that sank in March last year.
General James Thurman, chief of US forces in South Korea, said Seoul and Washington are applying lessons "garnered by the alliance's recent experiences with North Korean provocations on the peninsula and past exercises."
The drills, which seek to mimic various enemy attack possibilities, are computer-assisted and led by officers conducting war games inside command posts separated from the troops.
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