US, South Korea start war games denounced by North Korea
(NSI News Source Info) SEOUL August 18, 2008: South Korea and the United States on Monday began an annual joint military exercise involving tens of thousands of troops which communist North Korea has denounced as a 'criminal' act.Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff office said 56,000 South Korean troops and 10,000 US soldiers were taking part in the five-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill which involves large-scale computer-simulated war games.Some 4,000 government offices and more than 300,000 civil servants nation wide are also involved.President Lee Myung-Bak presided over a National Security Council meeting and a separate cabinet meet in an underground bunker as part of the exercise, his office said."We are conducting the drill the way we should do in case of war," a senior presidential aide told AFP on condition of anonymity.The South's military upgraded its defence readiness condition by one notch to DEFCON II. The cabinet issued a national mobilisation order authorising a limited call-up of reservists and civilian equipment, the aide said.The North routinely criticises such exercises as a prelude to invasion, while the US and South Korea say they are purely defensive.The North last month denounced this week's exercise as a "criminal act" which would raise tensions on the divided peninsula.South Korea has remained technically at war with the North since their 1950-53 war ended only with an armistice and not a peace pact.South Korea's military for the first time will command its troops during the exercise, in preparation for the transfer to Seoul in 2012 of wartime operational control over its own forces.At present the US, which has 28,500 service personnel in the South, assumes control over both Korean and US forces should war break out.Lieutenant General Joseph Fil Jr., commander of the 8th US Army in South Korea, warned on Friday that if North Korea attacked South Korea, the communist nation would lose and the two Koreans would be reunified."There is no doubt, if the North Koreans decide to cause trouble, what the outcome will be. No doubt at all," Fil told a group of American teachers at US bases here, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper.Diplomatic efforts to scrap North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes are currently stalled pending an agreement on ways to verify the North's declaration of its atomic activities.
Monday, August 18, 2008
US, South Korea start war games denounced by North Korea
US, South Korea start war games denounced by North Korea
(NSI News Source Info) SEOUL August 18, 2008: South Korea and the United States on Monday began an annual joint military exercise involving tens of thousands of troops which communist North Korea has denounced as a 'criminal' act.Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff office said 56,000 South Korean troops and 10,000 US soldiers were taking part in the five-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill which involves large-scale computer-simulated war games.Some 4,000 government offices and more than 300,000 civil servants nation wide are also involved.President Lee Myung-Bak presided over a National Security Council meeting and a separate cabinet meet in an underground bunker as part of the exercise, his office said."We are conducting the drill the way we should do in case of war," a senior presidential aide told AFP on condition of anonymity.The South's military upgraded its defence readiness condition by one notch to DEFCON II. The cabinet issued a national mobilisation order authorising a limited call-up of reservists and civilian equipment, the aide said.The North routinely criticises such exercises as a prelude to invasion, while the US and South Korea say they are purely defensive.The North last month denounced this week's exercise as a "criminal act" which would raise tensions on the divided peninsula.South Korea has remained technically at war with the North since their 1950-53 war ended only with an armistice and not a peace pact.South Korea's military for the first time will command its troops during the exercise, in preparation for the transfer to Seoul in 2012 of wartime operational control over its own forces.At present the US, which has 28,500 service personnel in the South, assumes control over both Korean and US forces should war break out.Lieutenant General Joseph Fil Jr., commander of the 8th US Army in South Korea, warned on Friday that if North Korea attacked South Korea, the communist nation would lose and the two Koreans would be reunified."There is no doubt, if the North Koreans decide to cause trouble, what the outcome will be. No doubt at all," Fil told a group of American teachers at US bases here, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper.Diplomatic efforts to scrap North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes are currently stalled pending an agreement on ways to verify the North's declaration of its atomic activities.
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