| Submit your comments on this article |
| Korea |
| U.S. begins exercise near DMZ |
| 2003-02-21 |
| Thousands of U.S. troops Friday began major war games near the heavily fortified inter-Korean border against a backdrop of rising tension over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. U.S. military authorities said the exercise, involving some 5,000 troops of the U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division, would last until March 10 at a strategic point near the demilitarized zone. The 15,000-strong Second Infantry Division is headquartered in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul and straddling an invasion route used by the North Korean People's Army in 1950. That was the last time they tried the "reunification" gag... Some 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a mutual defense pact that was signed at the end of the Korean War. The drill, called Iron ARTEP (Army Readiness Training and Evaluation Program), is aimed at "testing units' abilities to conduct wartime missions," said Major Curtis Roberts, spokesman for the Second Infantry Division. "This is a semi-annual drill. It has nothing to do with the current political or diplomatic situation. The main agenda of the drill is to test and evaluate units' abilities to conduct wartime missions. "Nearly one-third of 15,000 soldiers assigned will be mobilized for the drill." ARTEPs are relatively routine exercises. ARTEP has been planned as a warm-up drill ahead of RSOI/FE 03, other U.S. military officials said, referring to annual joint exercises to be staged by U.S. and South Korean troops from March 4 to April 2. RSOI-FE 03 focuses on a mock battle aimed at evaluating command capabilities and the deployment of U.S. forces from abroad. A U.S. aircraft carrier would be sent to waters around the Korean peninsula as part of those war games. That's the more important execise. It's the capper to the year's training cycle. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |