Us-south Korea drill to go on despite talks

ANNUAL Us-south Korean military drills that infuriate North Korea will begin on April 1.

However, the drills are likely to be more low-key than past years ahead of two highly anticipated summits among the countries’ leaders.

This year’s drills were postponed during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, which saw rare co-operative steps between the rival Korean nations after months of confrontation over the North’s weapons programmes.

North Korea considers the exercises an invasion rehearsal.

After post-olympics talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, South Korean officials said Mr Kim indicated he would accept the drills.

Mr Kim also offered to meet personally with US President Donald Trump to discuss giving up his nuclear weapons on unspecified terms, and Mr Trump agreed to meet Mr Kim by the end of May.

Mr Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are to meet separately in late April.

The Pentagon said defence secretary Jim Mattis and his South Korean counterpart, Song Young-moo, agreed to go forward with the two sets of exercises, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, “at a scale similar to” that of previous years.

North Korea has been notified of the schedule “as well as the defensive nature” of the exercises, the Pentagon said.

The exercises begin with Foal Eagle, a field training drill that will last about four weeks, compared with its typical two-month run in past years.

The other drill, known as Key Resolve, is a computer-simulated command post exercise and is scheduled to start around the middle of April for a usual two-week run, a South Korean official said.