hankyoreh

South Korea and the United States began Monday their annual computer-based war game exercise with few field activities, snubbing North Korea's warning that the exercise will trigger a "catastrophic impact."

The 12-day Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL) involves about 10,000 American troops, with about half of them coming from outside of the Korean Peninsula, according to defense officials. Nearly 30,000 U.S. soldiers are already deployed here as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

"But some 500 key players among the troops from outside Korea will be actually deployed here, with the rest to stay abroad and take part in the UFL," a U.S. Forces Korea spokesman said.

The UFL, which began in 1975, is the world's largest computerized command-and-control exercise to foster joint defense capability against a possible North Korean attack.

This year's exercise was to overlap with an inter-Korean summit originally slated for Aug. 28-30, prompting the Defense Ministry to postpone its independent anti-guerilla drills.

But the summit was rescheduled to Oct. 2-4 due to the North's recent flood damage.

"Although the summit was deferred, we still plan to hold the Hwarang Exercise after September," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-gi said.

Pyongyang, meanwhile, has stepped up its criticism of the UFL, claiming it shows Washington's indifference to peace and security on the peninsula.

"The Korean People's Army (KPA) will actively put into practice its earlier statement that it will do all it can to round off the powerful striking means to cope with the large-scale war maneuvers to be staged against the DPRK," the Panmunjom Mission of the KPA said in its latest English-language statement. The DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The KPA did not specify what action it would take.

It said "the U.S. will be wholly held responsible for the catastrophic impact the above-said saber-rattling will have on the implementation of the Feb. 13 agreement and the six-way talks."

Under the agreement, the North shut down its main nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and it is also required to take further steps to disable its atomic weapons program.
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Yonhap News)