ROK, US to keep drills low-key
By Chung Min-uck
South Korea and the United States plan a low-key start today for their joint military drills to ensure ongoing inter-Korean family reunions are not disrupted.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Sunday the two allies will hold the computer-based command post exercise, dubbed Key Resolve, from Monday to March 6.
Key Resolve will be followed by a combined field-training drill, called Foal Eagle, from Monday to April 18.
Key Resolve will involve 10,000 South Korean and 5,200 American troops, which represents an increase of about 1,700 U.S. forces compared to last year.
For Foal Eagle, about 7,500 American troops, a decrease of 25 percent from last year, will join 200,000 South Korean troops.
A military official said Sunday less South Korean soldiers will be involved in the joint drills than last year.
MND officials said that the joint military exercise will be carried out in a “low-key” manner.
“The joint drills are defensive by nature and it is wrong to think that the exercises are aimed at preparing for an attack against the North,” said an MND official,
The joint military drills come as the Koreas are holding a series of family reunions at Mount Geumgang, a scenic resort on the North’s east coast, which will last until Tuesday.
Pyongyang had threatened to boycott the family reunions, but later backed down and agreed to hold the reunions as planned.
North Korea has called the military exercises, “a rehearsal for invasion.”
However, reflecting the conciliatory mood on the Korean peninsula of late, the North refrained from directly criticizing the South concerning the drills.
The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Party mouthpiece, said the U.S. is pushing forward with the large-scale joint drills.
“The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises are heightening tensions on the Korean peninsula,” the state-run newspaper quoted a Pyongyang official as saying. “It shows that Washington is the main culprit for dividing the Korean people and bringing the threat of nuclear war to the peninsula.”
Unlike in the past, South Korea was not mentioned in the article.
Last year, the U.S. mobilized a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, F-22 stealth fighters and B-52 nuclear bombers in and around the peninsula, which drew an angry response from the communist state.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to help deter North Korean aggression. South and North Korea remain technically in a state of war as the Korean War ended in a ceasefire.