South Korea and US forces have launched an 11-day land and sea exercise, in the face of North Korean protests that such “sabre-rattling” could lead to military confrontation.
Exercise Key Resolve, the second phase of the allies’ annual war games, went ahead as planned on Monday and will involve 13,500 troops. The war games have sparked angry rhetoric from Pyongyang, which also condemned new UN sanctions imposed in response to its recent rocket launch and nuclear device test.
“It is the US imperialists’ trite method of aggression to tighten sanctions and escalate the moves to stifle [North Korea] militarily,” state media said on Sunday.