South Korea and the United States will stage
a two-week joint military drill starting this week with the aim of maintaining security and their joint defense posture on the Korean
Peninsula, military sources said Sunday.
The annual "Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG)" exercises will be held from Aug. 16-26, with about 30,000 U.S. troops and some 56,000 South Korean soldiers participating, they said. A portion of the U.S. troops will join the drill, using computer networks in America.
The number of U.S. troops who take part in this year's drill is much more than the 10,000 that participated in other years.
In addition, the Combined Forces Command of South Korean and U.S. forces, currently led by a U.S. commander, will hold another security drill against terrorist attacks during the period, bracing for the two-day G-20 summit to be held in Seoul on Nov. 11.
The anti-terror drill will be joined by about 400,000 soldiers and officials from 4,000 offices of the central and regional governments, they
said.
South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will also stage a drill to transport two K-200 armored vehicles from Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province to Uncheon, Gyeonggi Province, a section spanning 419
kilometers.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. South and North Korea remain technically in a state of
war since the conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.