S. Korea, US to go ahead with drills despite N. Korea threat

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean and U.S. militaries say they’ll go ahead with large-scale annual military drills later this month despite North Korea’s threats to take “unprecedently” strong action against such training. It’s likely that North Korea will respond to the upcoming South Korean-U.S. exercises with provocative missile tests because it views them as an invasion rehearsal. In a joint press conference Friday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries said they will conduct the Freedom Shield exercise, a computer-simulated command post training, from March 13-23 to strengthen their defense and response capabilities. They said they’ll also conduct a number of large-scale joint field training exercises.