hankyoreh

Seoul, Aug. 21 (Yonhap News)
South Korea and the United States kicked off a joint military exercise on Monday, officials said, amid heightened tension over North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs.

The annual training exercise, dubbed the Ulchi Focus Lens, involves about 20,000 South Korean and American troops during its 12-day session, they said. About 3,000 American troops were brought in from U.S. military bases in Guam, Japan and other areas.

"This year's exercise will be very intensive. The participants will have in mind the country's plans to take over wartime control from the U.S. military," a South Korean military official said, on request of anonymity.

The exercise, conducted every year since 1975, consists mostly of computer-simulated war games to evaluate and improve combined and joint procedures, plans and systems used in the event of conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

On July 5, North Korea test-fired seven missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, all of which fell into the East Sea.

The North has long claimed the U.S. is preparing to invade the country, describing the annual joint military exercise as a "rehearsal" for a U.S. attack similar to that on Iraq.

In a commentary broadcast Monday, North Korea's Radio Pyongyang slammed the military drill. "This is an unbearable military provocation and a destructive act that undermines peace and will drive the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war," it said.

The state-run broadcaster said the North Korean people are prepared to counter any U.S. military move that may threaten the country.

"It is the U.S.'s unchanging strategy against Korea that it seeks to launch preemptive strikes on our republic so as to control the entire peninsula," it said, "Under these serious circumstances, it is only natural for our military and people to take heightened precautions and make full preparations." North Korea is sensitive to all joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises. The communist country claims it has nuclear weapons and can deter any outside invasion.

On July 21, the South Korea-U.S. combined forces command notified North Korea of the planned exercise. The combined command will be disbanded after South Korea takes over wartime control of its troops from the U.S. Seoul hopes to regain wartime control by 2012.

About 30,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The number is scheduled to go down to 25,000 by 2008.

The two Koreas are still technically in a state of war, since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.