South Korea-U.S. drills shadowed by North Korea threats

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tens of thousands of South Korean and U.S. troops began a military exercise simulating an all-out North Korean attack on Monday, August 22 as Pyongyang issued bellicose threats of pre-emptive nuclear strikes in retaliation, AFP reports.

The two-week annual Ulchi Freedom exercise is largely computer-simulated, but still involves around 50,000 Korean and 25,000 U.S. soldiers.

The drill always triggers a spike in tensions on the divided Korean peninsula, and this year it coincides with particularly volatile cross-border relations following a series of high-profile defections.

As the exercise began, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said the defections signaled domestic turmoil in Pyongyang that could cause North Korea to lash out.

"It is increasingly possible that North Korea may undertake various terror attacks and provocations ... to block internal unrest, prevent further defections and create confusion in our society," Park told a cabinet briefing, according to AFP.

Ulchi Freedom plays out a full-scale invasion scenario by nuclear-armed North Korea and both Seoul and Washington insist it remains purely defensive in nature.

North Korea's frontline units were "fully ready to mount a preemptive retaliatory strike at all enemy attack groups involved," said a spokesman for the KPA General Staff.

The slightest violation of North Korea's territorial sovereignty would result in the source of the provocation being turned "into a heap of ashes through Korean-style pre-emptive nuclear strike," the spokesman said.