S. Korea, US start military drills
Source: Agencies |
August 17, 2010, Tuesday
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SOUTH Korean and US troops launched computerized military drills yesterday despite North Korea warning it would retaliate with a "merciless counterblow" for the exercises.
The 11-day drills, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian, are annual war games that involve about 56,000 South Korean soldiers and 30,000 US troops in South Korea and abroad, South Korea's Defense Ministry and the US command in Seoul said yesterday.
No field training is involved in the war games, in which alliance soldiers, mostly senior officers, sit at computers to practice how they engage in battles and hone their decision-making capabilities. The exercises are eventually designed to improve the allies' joint capability to defend South Korea and respond to any potential provocations, the US military said in a statement last month.
The US and South Korea engaged in joint naval drills last month off South Korea's east coast they called a show of unity after a South Korean warship was sunk in March.
The allies say the routine military drills are purely defensive, while North Korea calls them preparation for an attack.
"It is another grave military provocation aimed at ... igniting a nuclear war" against North Korea, Pyongyang's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried yesterday by the Korean Central News Agency.
The country's military threatened on Sunday to deal a "merciless counterblow" to the US and South Korea, "the severest punishment no one has ever met in the world."
North Korea's military did not elaborate on how it would retaliate.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said yesterday it had spotted no suspicious activity.
"We can prevent a war and maintain peace when we get thoroughly prepared," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
"We have been doing the Ulchi drills every year, but the people may feel uneasy because the drills are taking place at a time of heightened inter-Korean tension following the (ship sinking)."
On Sunday, Lee urged North Korea to abandon military provocation and make a "courageous change" toward peace, and he outlined a path for the peninsula's unification. Lee - in a speech marking the 65th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule - proposed a three-stage unification process, in which the two countries achieve peace and economic integration before becoming a "community of the Korean nation."
North Koreans also marked Liberation Day by paying respect to a huge statue of its late founder, Kim Il Sung.
The 11-day drills, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Guardian, are annual war games that involve about 56,000 South Korean soldiers and 30,000 US troops in South Korea and abroad, South Korea's Defense Ministry and the US command in Seoul said yesterday.
No field training is involved in the war games, in which alliance soldiers, mostly senior officers, sit at computers to practice how they engage in battles and hone their decision-making capabilities. The exercises are eventually designed to improve the allies' joint capability to defend South Korea and respond to any potential provocations, the US military said in a statement last month.
The US and South Korea engaged in joint naval drills last month off South Korea's east coast they called a show of unity after a South Korean warship was sunk in March.
The allies say the routine military drills are purely defensive, while North Korea calls them preparation for an attack.
"It is another grave military provocation aimed at ... igniting a nuclear war" against North Korea, Pyongyang's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried yesterday by the Korean Central News Agency.
The country's military threatened on Sunday to deal a "merciless counterblow" to the US and South Korea, "the severest punishment no one has ever met in the world."
North Korea's military did not elaborate on how it would retaliate.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said yesterday it had spotted no suspicious activity.
"We can prevent a war and maintain peace when we get thoroughly prepared," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
"We have been doing the Ulchi drills every year, but the people may feel uneasy because the drills are taking place at a time of heightened inter-Korean tension following the (ship sinking)."
On Sunday, Lee urged North Korea to abandon military provocation and make a "courageous change" toward peace, and he outlined a path for the peninsula's unification. Lee - in a speech marking the 65th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule - proposed a three-stage unification process, in which the two countries achieve peace and economic integration before becoming a "community of the Korean nation."
North Koreans also marked Liberation Day by paying respect to a huge statue of its late founder, Kim Il Sung.
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