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(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S. notify N. Korea of joint war game plan
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- The United States and South Korea will hold a joint annual military exercise next month which North Korea routinely denounces as a war preparation, officials said Friday.
The Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), scheduled for Aug. 17-27, will draw 10,000 U.S. troops from bases here and abroad, Kim Yong-kyu, a Combined Forces Command (CFC) spokesman, told reporters.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea, which conducted its second nuclear test May 25 and has since been slapped with new U.N. sanctions.
"North Korea was notified this morning of the drill," Kim said, declining to say how the notice was delivered.
No response has yet been received concerning the computer simulation-assisted drill, he said. Pyongyang last year called the UFG a prelude to an "preemptive nuclear attack."
The CFC said in a release that the UFG is a defensive exercise that is "not meant to be provocative in any way."
The drill is "designed to improve the alliance's ability to defend ROK against external aggression," the CFC said. ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
South Korea mobilized 56,000 troops last year for the exercise. A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official said "a similar number" will be mobilized this year.
The UFG is the largest joint U.S.-South Korea exercise along with the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise, which North Korea protested earlier this year by threatening South Korean airplanes flying near its airspace and blocking cross-border military communication lines.
The exercise in March involved over 25,000 American troops, a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier and tens of thousands of South Korean troops.
Tension persists on the peninsula as North Korea has declared void the truce that effectively ended the 1950-53 Korean War. It has threatened retaliation over the U.N. sanctions and warned of an armed conflict near the western sea border with South Korea.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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