US, S.Korea in Massive Landing Drill against DPRK
Thousands of American and South Korean troops backed by warships and planes launched a massive amphibious landing drill at a beachhead near here Friday as part of what DPRK denounces as preparations for nuclear war.

In a signal to Dprk that Washington will not drop its guard despite its preoccupation with the war on Iraq, US and South Korea troops are engaged in major war games this month.

Amphibious tanks roared ashore and sent camouflaged marines fanning across a smoke-filled beach as gunships hovered and fighter jets screamed overhead.

One lone anti-war protestor, who ran onto the beach before the landing started, was escorted away by police, witnesses said.

The joint landing drill at Hwajin Beach in Pohang, 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Seoul, involves around 3,000 troops - including 1,000 US marines, Captain Son Kang-Ho from the South Korean Marine Corps said.

Visible out to sea were six navy ships, including the USS Juneau amphibious transport vessel, from whose decks tanks and armored landing vehicles took to sea.

Further out, invisible from the shore, a US aircraft carrier battle group provided additional cover.

"The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is somewhere off the coast," Lieutenant Commander Matt Brotherton from the US Navy said as he surveyed the landing drill, part of joint maneuvers which have sparked strong condemnation from Dprk.

The aircraft carrier with 70 aircraft, backed by supporting warships, has been in waters around the Korean peninsula since last week to participate in the exercises aimed at deterring any threats from DPRK.

The war games, codenamed RSOI/FE (Resourcing, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration/Foal Eagle 03), began on March 4 and are scheduled to last until April 2.

The landing drill coincides with the start of the US-led war on Iraq and rising tensions in the nuclear standoff with DPRK, which fears it could become the next target of the Bush administration that groups it along with Iraq and Iran in an "axis of evil."

Dprk's Korean Central News Agency said Friday the exercises showed that the United States was preparing to launch a strike.

After failing to persuade Dprk to scrap its nuclear weapons drive, Washington now intended to settle the crisis by military means and the war games were conceived to fix the "zero hour" for the attack, KCNA said.

The US military denies the charge, saying the annual drills are defensive in nature and focus on repelling a DPRK invasion of South Korea.

"It is an annual and routine drill. You don't want to see a war here but you are prepared," said Brotherton.

DPRK has escalated the stand-off over its nuclear program in recent months, kicking out UN inspectors from its nuclear plants, withdrawing from a key non-proliferation treaty and sending fighter jets to buzz a US surveillance plane.

Dprk has also launched the test-firing of short-range anti-ship missiles amid speculation that it could raise the stakes further by launching a ballistic missile.

The United States has boosted its firepower in and around the Korean peninsula by deploying long-range bombers to the Pacific island of Guam and six F-117A Stealth fighters in South Korea.

In addition to the USS Carl Vinson, the Aegis-equipped battleship USS Vincennes has also been in waters off South Korea.

As the US military build-up was under way, DPRK intercepted a US spy plane over international waters on March 2 in an incident deemed a serious provocation by US officials.

Tension has been building on the peninsula since the US disclosure in October last year that DPRK was running a secret nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium.

Source: agencies




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