South Korea, US kick off military drill
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-19 16:34

South Korea and the United States launched military exercises that North Korea said were aimed at making a preemptive strike and justified the bolstering of its "self-defensive nuclear arsenal."

The week-long drill started as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said North Korea it must immediately return to stalled talks aimed at persuading it to scrap its nuclear weapons program.

US sailors check an F-18 Hornet strike fighter on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier. The USS Kitty Hawk carrier and battle group arrived in Busan to take part in joint military exercises with the South Korean armed forces. North Korea said the exercises were aimed at making a preemptive strike and justified the bolstering of its "self-defensive nuclear arsenal". [AFP/File]

Some 17,000 US troops, 6,000 of them stationed in South Korea, were taking part in the annual exercise with an unspecified number of South Korean troops, a US military spokesman said.

The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its battle group arrived at the southeastern port of Busan a week ahead of the drill with 5,200 sailors and 60 aircraft, including F-18 Super Hornets, and six warships.

A Striker unit -- a rapid task force with agile armored vehicles -- is also taking part.

"The level of the US troops and military equipment mobilized this time is similar to ones in the preceding years," the US military command in Seoul said in a statement.

The drill focuses on a mock battle aimed at evaluating command capabilities to receive US forces from abroad, with troops mobilized for anti-commando operations and computer war games.

The United States says the exercise is "defense oriented" and designed to improve the ability of allied forces to defend South Korea against external aggression.

But North Korea, which is officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has reacted nervously.

"The projected exercises are extremely dangerous nuclear war drills to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK," the official Korean Central News Agency said on Friday.

"The DPRK will take all the necessary countermeasures including the increase of its nuclear arsenal to cope with the extremely hostile attempt of the US to bring down its system chosen by the Korean people themselves," it said.

"The reality goes to prove that it is very just for the DPRK to have opted for bolstering its self-defensive nuclear arsenal in order to protect the peace of the country and the fate of the nation from the US moves for aggression...," it said.

The country's "nukes serve as powerful deterrent to keep the balance of forces in Northeast Asia, prevent the outbreak of a new war and preserve peace," it said.

Rice was due in South Korea late Saturday from Japan for talks on North Korea's nuclear issue.

In Tokyo she said North Korea should return promptly to stalled negotiations on its disarmament that involve the United States, Japan, Russia, China and the two Koreas.

"North Korea should return to the six-party talks immediately if it is serious about exploring the path forward that we and the other parties have proposed," Rice said.

"This is where the North Korean government can find the respect it desires and the assistance it needs if it is willing to make a strategic choice," she said.

North Korea last took part in the talks in June 2004 and in February announced a new suspension of dialogue, demanding Rice apologize for the country an "outpost of tyranny."

"It is quite illogical for the US to intend to negotiate with the DPRK without retracting its remarks that listed its dialogue partner as 'an outpost of tyranny,'" a spokesman for its foreign ministry said Wednesday.

But Rice has refused to apologize and reiterated this week that United States had no intention of attacking North Korea.

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