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| China-Japan-Koreas | |||
| U.S., S. Korea to Hold Joint Military Exercises | |||
| 2012-01-29 | |||
| The United States and South Korea are to hold two military exercises on the Korean peninsula soon. They will be the first such war games since the recent change of leadership in North Korea. There has been some thought that war games might give North Korea's young, untested leader, Kim Jong-un, an excuse to flex his muscles to bolster national unity and his own credentials. He succeeded his late father last month and is a four-star general but is not known to have performed any actual military service.
U.S. military officials describe it as a training exercise, which will last until March 9, focusing on crisis management with a "whole of government" approach. It will overlap with the start of a two-month joint tactical field exercise, known as "Foal Eagle." The training is to involve 11,000 U.S. forces, along with a still undecided number of South Korean military divisions and smaller-sized units. Foal Eagle, is to run from March 1 through April 30. The United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNMAC) says, at the border village of Panmunjom, it informed North Korea's army of the exercise dates and that it would be a non-provocative training. North Korea does not see it that way.
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| Posted by:Steve White |