Nuclear warning over joint war drill

SOUTH KOREAN and US troops have begun annual drills with a warning that they could provoke nuclear war from the Communist regime in Pyongyang.

The Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills that began on Monday are largely computer-simulated war games and will run until August 31. They follow rising tensions after North Korea’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month.

Pyongyang calls the 11-day drills a “reckless” invasion rehearsal that could trigger the “uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war”.

South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in insisted that the drills are defensive in nature and are held regularly because of repeated provocations by North Korea.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump pledged to answer North Korean aggression with “fire and fury”.

North Korea, for its part, threatened to launch missiles toward the American territory of Guam.

The exercise involves 17,500 American troops and 50,000 South Korean soldiers, according to the US military command in South Korea and Seoul’s defence ministry.

No field training like live-fire exercise or tank manoeuvring is involved in the Ulchi drills, in which senior officers, sit at computers to practise how they engage in battles and hone their decision-making capabilities.

North Korea typically responds to South Korea-US military exercises with weapons tests and aggressive rhetoric.

During last year’s Ulchi drills, North Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile followed by its fifth and biggest nuclear test to date.