Seoul, Washington kick off joint annual war game

South Korean and US forces kicked off their joint annual war game on Monday.

The annually-held Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) will be conducted from August 22 to September 2 to enhance US-South Korea defence readiness in the region and stability on the Korean peninsula, Xinhua news agency quoted Combined Forces Command as saying.

The computer-assisted simulation exercise will mobilise about 25,000 US troops, including 2,500 reinforcements from the US and the US Pacific Command. It was lower than last year's 30,000 US forces.

From the South Korean side, some 50,000 forces will join the military exercise. It was almost the same as last year's.

The United Nations Command's military armistice commission notified North Korea around 9.40 a.m. (local time) of the drill schedule and its defence nature verbally in Panmunjom, the truce village in the border dividing the two Koreas.

--IANS

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