WORLD> Asia-Pacific
US, South Korea kick off annual military exercise
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-18 10:49

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea and the United States kicked off annual joint military drills Monday with a focus on preparing Seoul to retake wartime command of its forces from Washington in 2012.

The drill, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, is a computer-simulated war game. South Korean forces will take on more leadership this year in preparation for the coming command transfer, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US military.

The drill, which runs through Thursday, involves 56,000 South Korean troops and 10,000 US soldiers in South Korea and abroad. It was previously known as Ulchi Focus Lens.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak presided over a meeting of his country's National Security Council as part of civil defense drills related to the exercise.

North Korea routinely condemns joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, calling them preparations to invade the country. Early this year, North Korea denounced the drills as an attempt "to stifle our republic by force and bring the catastrophe of a nuclear war."

The US and South Korea say the war games are purely defensive.

South Korea transferred control of its troops to the US in 1950 after the outbreak of the Korean War. It regained peacetime control in 1994, but the top US general here is still supposed to command South Korean forces if war breaks out.

In a pact finalized last year, South Korea and the US agreed Seoul will retake wartime control of its forces in April 2012.

About 28,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war.