South Korea and the US. starting today will be their biggest joint military exercises to date in an atmosphere of great tension after North Korea threatened to make allies "preemptive attacks".
EFE
The annual exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, aimed at coordinating the defense of Seoul and Washington to a possible conflict with North Korea, began early in the day and will continue until March 18 and April 30 respectively, announced the US forces South Korea (USFK) said in a statement.
The exercises this year are marked by threats of the regime of Kim Jong-un, who promised today to respond with "preemptive attacks" and said to have South Korean military objectives "within reach", as well as US bases in Asia-Pacific.
Some 17,000 US military personnel in total involved in both years, the statement said.
Both maneuvers larger scale will be executed so far on the Korean peninsula, as they advanced authorities in Seoul and Washington, and also engage jointly over 300,000 South Korean military.
The forces of the two countries joint combat tested strategies untested so far and include the OPLAN 5015 exercise, which simulates the disabling of weapons of mass destruction of enemy troops preparing for a preemptive strike.
This year's maneuvers intended as a show of force in response to the nuclear test January and the launch of a rocket in February carried out by North Korea.
Both actions have received in response to a tightening of UN sanctions communist country as well as unilateral measures South Korea, USA and Japan to try to stifle North Korea's finances, which has contributed to increasing military tension in the region.
USA It maintains 28,500 troops deployed in South Korea permanently and agree to defend its ally in case of conflict with North Korea as a legacy of the Korean War (1950-53).