South Korea, US to stage annual drills over North's missile, cyber threats

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States will begin annual summertime military drills next week to ramp up their capability to counter North Korea's weapons and cyber threats, officials said on Monday.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, set to run from Aug. 19 to 29, come as North Korea continues to develop its nuclear and missile programmes and tries to launch reconnaissance satellites.

The drills will reflect "realistic threats" across all domains, including the North's missile threats but also GPS jamming, cyberattacks and other lessons learned from recent incidents, the two countries' militaries said in a statement.

The alliance "will further strengthen its capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction," Colonel Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a briefing.

Lee said the South Korean military would also support the simultaneous government-led Ulchi civil defence drills, one set in the scenario of a nuclear attack by the North.

About 19,000 South Korean troops, similar to last year, will take part in 48 rounds of combined field training, including field manoeuvre, live fire and amphibious exercises, he said.

Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesperson of U.S Forces Korea, said the annual exercises were among the largest exercises in the Indo-Pacific region, and will be joined by member states of the United Nations Command.

Pyongyang has long denounced the allies for stoking tensions with military drills, calling them rehearsals for a nuclear war.

Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive and a response to the North's threats.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)