By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter

South Korea and the United States will begin large-scale, joint military exercises today to evaluate the allied forces' capability to defend the former from outside attack.

North Korea labeled the annual Key Resolve-Foal Eagle drills as military provocations, saying it would indefinitely suspend denuclearization talks and all military dialogue as long as the ``hostile war games'' continue.

The North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station said, ``Considering that they are nuclear war drills against the North in their nature, it will be inevitable for Pyongyang to discontinue its denuclearization process and bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense.''

The ROK-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) says the annual drills are purely for defensive purposes.

"Like any other CFC drills, they are aimed at improving the joint command's defense capability in the South," a senior CFC official said.

On Feb. 17, the CFC notified the North of the Key Resolve-Foal Eagle drills, reassuring them that they are regular defense-oriented exercises.

This year's joint exercises run until March 18 and will be carried out on a smaller scale compared to last year's. They will involve 18,000 U.S. servicemen, including 8,000 U.S. troops stationed outside the peninsula, a defense ministry official said Sunday.

The official said some 20,000 South Korean troops will also participate in the annual drills, which will take place in multiple locations throughout South Korea.

Observers say the CFC downscaled the combined command-post drills to avoid possible provocation of the North. No U.S. aircraft carriers will participate in the joint drills.

Meanwhile, the South Korean military says it will increase surveillance on the border and the possible launch of short-range missiles and combat fighters from the North.

Seoul's defense officials are concerned that the North may conduct another firing drill in the West Sea during the 11-day military drills to raise tension on the peninsula.

In late January, the communist North fired artillery shells for three days towards the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which serves as the de facto inter-Korean maritime border. The North suffered a defeat to the South Korean Navy in a skirmish last year at the NLL.

Last year, Pyongyang said it would not guarantee the safety of passenger planes flying over its airspace during the joint drills, forcing Korean commercial airplanes bound for European countries to make a detour.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire agreement, not a peace treaty.

leeth@koreatimes.co.kr