Massive Military Drills Planned Near Dokdo
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea's Navy will conduct the first of two training exercises planned for this year near the islets of Dokdo in the East Sea Wednesday, the service said Tuesday.
It is the first time that the annual drill, which is to be conducted in a low-key manner, has been made public.
The drill is aimed at strengthening the nation's military readiness against any possible attempt by enemies to claim the easternmost islets, it said.
This year's exercise will be the largest in scale since the so-called Dokdo Protection Exercise began in 1996, Navy officials said.
South Korea's 15-K supersonic fighter jets, which were fully operational earlier this month, will participate in the exercise also involving six Navy ships, including a 3,000-ton destroyer, P-3C maritime patrol aircraft, Lynx anti-submarine helicopters and two patrol vessels of the maritime police, they said.
The F-15K has long-range capability enough to respond to an emergency near Dokdo anytime. It has an operational radius of 1,800 kilometers and is capable of conducting missions over Dokdo for about 30 minutes, much longer than KF-16 fighters capable of carrying out operations for just eight minutes.
The Boeing-built aircraft is capable of air-to-ground, air-to-air and air-to-sea missions day or night, in all weather conditions. It has a 23,000-pound payload and can fly at a maximum speed of Mach 2.3.
``This exercise will be conducted under a scenario that an imaginary enemy force infiltrates the territorial waters of Dokdo,'' a Navy spokesman said. ``The Navy, the maritime police and the Air Force will conduct a joint simulation training exercise in that they will collect intelligence, identify foes and dispel the enemy.''
The Navy has carried out the Dokdo exercise several times a year since 1996, when it was held six times. Since 2005, the drill has been conducted twice a year.
The exercise had been conducted in a low-key manner in a bid not to raise unnecessary military tension with Japan, but this year the Seoul government decided to conduct the drill openly to help reinforce its ownership of Dokdo amid Tokyo's renewed claim to the islets.
Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said in a National Assembly interpellations session earlier this month that his military will boost major exercises near Dokdo.
The small cluster of rocky islets, known as Takeshima in Japanese, has been administered since 1953. The islets were annexed by Japan along with the Korean Peninsula in 1910, but Tokyo claims its territorial rights to the islets were declared five years before the start of Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945.
Seoul has stationed a 50-strong police contingent on the group of 33 islets to reinforce its ownership. The area surrounding the islets is believed to be rich in fishing and undersea resources.