Def Ministry announce March joint military drills with US

(24 Feb 2015) The South Korean defence ministry announced on Tuesday that South Korea and the United States will start their annual joint military drills early next month despite repeated threats from Pyongyang if the exercises are not cancelled. The virtual war-game exercise, 'Key Resolve', will take place from 2nd March to 13th March and the field training exercise, 'Foal Eagle', will take place from 2nd March to 24th April. "The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises were planned since last year, and we are conducting them unrelated to North Korea's stance. They are annual drills of a defensive nature," said South Korean defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok. Kim added that North Korea has been informed about the exercises and there was no specific response yet. The Combined Forces Command (CFC) said the Key Resolve exercise is to improve the combined forces' operation and combat capabilities against North Korea's threats. It is expected to involve about 10-thousand South Korean and 8,600 US troops. The Foal Eagle exercise is a series of land, sea and air field exercises with about 200-thousand Korean and 3,700 US troops. North Korea told the US last month that it was willing to impose a temporary moratorium on its nuclear tests if Washington scraps the military drills with South Korea this year, but the allies have refused to cancel the exercises. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you... Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork