S. Korea, US kick off two-week joint military drill
South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual joint exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) on Monday to maintain their combined forces' readiness against North Korea's potential aggression amid Pyongyang's threats to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike.The allies' Combined Forces Command (CFC) said the drill will run to Sept. 2, and involve about 75,000 troops, including 25,000 from the U.S. side.As the countries opened the command and control exercise earlier in the day, they told North Korea of the drill's schedule and its non-offensive nature through a communication channel in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom, according to the CFC.For this year's exercise, nine member countries of the United Nations Command based in South Korea will join the computerized military exercise, including Australia, Canada, France and Britain.The Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, the armistice watchdog, will also participate in the drill as an observer in charge of looking into whether it is in compliance with the armistice agreement between the two Koreas, according to the
Aug 22, 2016