Seoul: Thousands of US troops converged on South Korea on Friday for the start of annual joint military exercises, a report said, as tensions run high on the peninsula following North Korea’s third nuclear test.
A joint air, ground and naval field training exercise known as Foal Eagle will run until April 30, involving more than 10,000 US troops along with a far greater number of South Korean personnel. “US troops of reinforcement headed off (to South Korea) from the bases in the US, the Pacific and Japan,” a military official was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. The exercise will involve land, air and landing operations.
AFP was unable immediately to independently confirm the start of the exercise but an earlier announcement from the defence ministry said they would begin on Friday.
Separately, US and South Korean troops will stage a computer-simulated drill named Key Resolve from March 11-21, involving 3,500 US soldiers and 10,000 South Korean troops.
Pyongyang habitually denounces the drills as a rehearsal for invasion but Seoul and Washington insist they are defencive in nature.
South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said on Thursday that North Korea had been conducting military exercises of its own in recent weeks with greater intensity than previously. (AFP)
