South Korea and the US launched a massive joint military exercise on Tuesday, prompting the North to condemn the maneuvers as provocative and warn that “all-out war” could erupt. The two allies have described the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise as defensive and routine but the North habitually terms such joint drills a rehearsal for invasion and launches its own counter-exercises. “The exercise started this morning,” a spokesman of the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command (CFC) told AFP, referring to the annual computer-assisted simulation command-post exercise. All of CFC’s major units are taking part, involving more than 530,000 troops, including some 3,000 military personnel from the United States and other bases around the Pacific region, CFC said. CFC commander US General James D. Thurman said the drill was focused on “preparing, preventing and prevailing against the full range of current and future external threats” to South Korea and the region. “We are applying lessons learned out of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those garnered by the Alliance’s recent experiences with North Korean provocations on the peninsula and past exercises,” he said.
