By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

South Korea is considering holding a joint military exercise with the United States to mimic coping with all possible contingencies that could occur in North Korea, a report said Friday.

The U.S. government recently proposed the idea to South Korea as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is reportedly suffering from illnesses and the economic situation in the communist state is worsening, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

But the Ministry of National Defense denied the report.

``The U.S. hasn't made any such proposal. Neither have we considered such a military drill,'' a ministry spokesman said, asking not to be named.

South Korea and the United States have successfully been developing an operational plan, codenamed OPLAN-5029, to respond to any type of internal instability in North Korea, according to informed sources.

U.S. Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), confirmed the move last year.

Speaking at a seminar here Oct. 30, the four-star general, who concurrently serves as chief of the U.S. Forces Korea and the United Nations Command, said both militaries agreed that American forces would still spearhead operations to eliminate North Korean weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and Marine amphibious assaults after the transfer of wartime operational control from the U.S. to South Korea on April 17, 2012.

A South Korean CFC commander said that under OPLAN-5029, ``either'' South Korean or U.S. troops would conduct stabilizing operations in North Korea, such as securing the North's WMDs and nuclear sites, in a flexible manner in the case of an emergency.

OPLAN-5029 outlines specific courses of action to cope with various levels of internal turmoil in the North, such as a mass inflow of North Korean refugees, a civil war provoked by revolt or a coup, South Korean hostages being held in North Korea and natural disasters.

Denouncing the plan, North Korea threatened Jan. 15 to wage a ``holy war'' against South Korea.

In a statement, the North's National Defense Commission warned that it would cut off all dialogue with South Korea and exclude its southern neighbor from all negotiations related to the security of the Korean Peninsula. The commission, headed by Kim Jong-il, is the highest ruling agency in the Stalinist state.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr