SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale military drills on Monday (March 7) in an annual test of defensive readiness against North Korea, which called the exercises “nuclear war moves” and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.
South Korea has said the drills will be the largest ever in scale in response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch that led to the latest U.N. Security Council resolution imposing tough new sanctions.
“2016 Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises begin today at its largest in scale while about 300,000 South Korean soldiers and about 17,000 U.S. forces taking part in the drills,” said South Korea’s defence ministry spokesman, Moon Sang-gyun, at a regular news briefing.
The drill began despite protests from the North. It claims the annual drills are war preparations, although the exercises have been conducted for years without major incident.
The South has notified the North of “the non-provocative nature of this training,” and warned a stern respond to a further provocation.
“North Korea should immediately stop its rash behavior that leads to self-destruction. If North Korea ignores our warning and makes provocations, our military will firmly and mercilessly respond to it,” Moon said.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry said it has seen no signs of unusual military activities by the North.
The latest U.N. sanctions, drafted by the United States and China, the North’s main ally, punish the isolated country following its fourth nuclear test, in January, as well as last month’s satellite launch, which the United States and others say was really a test of ballistic missile technology.
South Korea and the U.S. militaries also formally began talks on Friday (March 7) on the deployment of the advanced anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system with the U.S. military in the South.
