South Korean President Park Geun-hye, center, presides over a cabinet meeting at the presidential house in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 19, 2013. The meeting was designed to ensure complete government-wide preparation in national emergency situations, as part of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, an annual joint-military exercise by South Korea and the United States.SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea and the United States began annual military drills Monday that North Korea usually calls a rehearsal for invasion.
This year’s Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills occur as tensions seem to be easing on the Korean Peninsula with the two Koreas working toward reopening a shuttered jointly run factory park. Pyongyang agreed Sunday to talks on reuniting families separated by war.
North Korean state media have not made major statements on the exercises thus far. North Korea published near-daily warlike rhetoric and threatened nuclear war during earlier annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises this year.
The Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills set to continue until Aug. 30 are computer-simulated war games that involve 30,000 American and 50,000 South Korean troops, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry and the U.S. military command in Seoul.
The allies have said the drills are defensive in nature and they have no intentions of attacking North Korea.