By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea and the United States will soften the level of their joint computerized military exercise to be held next week, according to officials of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Monday.
The move is construed as an apparent bid not to provoke North Korea at a time when the communist regime appears to want to discuss stalled denuclearization talks with the United States, following former U.S. President Bill Clinton's landmark visit to Pyongyang last week, analysts say.
The Lee Myung-bak administration is also wary of causing tensions with Pyongyang as five South Koreans have been held in the North, they say.
``In the upcoming war games, troops from the Combined Forces Command (CFC) will end their counterattacks in Gaeseong, before reaching Pyongyang,'' a JCS official said on condition of anonymity.
Previously, CFC troops often advanced into Pyongyang or the Amnokgang (Yalu River) in their simulated training exercises, the official said.
South Korea and the United States will hold the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), formerly known as Ulchi Focus Lens, from Aug. 17 till 27.
The exercise is aimed at improving interoperability between South Korean and U.S. forces.
About 56,000 South Korean troops and 10,000 American troops will take part in the command and control, war-fighting exercise, according to the CFC.
The exercise will be the second in which South Korea's JCS will serve in a leading role with the U.S. Forces Korea serving in a supporting role, in rehearsal training for the planned transition of wartime operational control from the U.S. military to Korean commanders.
Under a 2007 agreement on command rearrangements, the U.S.-led CFC will be deactivated in April 17, 2012. The militaries will then launch separate theater commands.
North Korea regularly denounces joint military drills by South Korea and the United States, calling them a rehearsal for invasion.