United States, South Korea announce annual military manoeuvres

Jan 27, 2012, 12:22 GMT

Seoul - US and South Korean armed forces are to carry out two months of joint manoeuvres, the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command said Friday.

The exercise Foal Eagle would start March 1 and last until the end of April. Another exercise, Key Resolve, was due to run from February 27 to March 9. About 13,000 US soldiers were scheduled to take part in addition to South Korean forces.

The military command said Pyongyang was informed of the exercises and what it called their non-provocative nature.

North Korea in the past, however, has accused the United States and its neighbour of using the exercises as a prelude to an invasion. The announcement of the exercises came six weeks after the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, which aroused fears of instability in the Stalinist state.

His youngest son, Kim Jong Un, was named his successor and commander of the armed forces.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula increased in 2010 when Pyongyang was accused of torpedoing a South Korean warship, a charge it denied, and carried out an artillery bombardment that killed four on a South Korean border island.

The United States has 28,500 soldiers based in South Korea, which technically remains at war with its northern neighbour after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.