Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea and the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), has ordered the combined forces of the two countries to conduct the largest-ever landing exercise involving the entire U.S. marine forces stationed in Japan later this year, Yonhap News reported quoting a military source.
The top U.S. general in South Korea has already ordered a temporary deployment of the regiment-size 31st U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) based in Japan's Okinawa for the joint exercise, according to the source.
Seoul, however, apparently remains lukewarm about what will be the largest amphibious exercise in history as it believes such a large-scale military drill could further chill its relations with communist North Korea, according to officials at the Defense Ministry.
The U.S. general has the wartime command of all South Korean and U.S. forces stationed here. He is set to hand over his wartime operational command, often called OPCON, of South Korean troops back to Seoul in April 2012.
Sharp's original plan and his order were to combine the U.S. marines from Japan with Korea's two regiment-size marine units to conduct a division-size amphibious exercise for the first time in South Korea's history that will involve over 10,000 troops, according to the source.
"Gen. Sharp said the countries needed to demonstrate to North Korea that their combined forces are well capable of conducting such a large-scale amphibious operation," the source was quoted as saying.
Sharp made the order on July 28 during his first visit to the Command of the South Korean Marine Corps.