U.S/Korean Military Exercises And Terror Drills Start Including "Simulated Attack"

From The Washington Post

TOKYO -- Amid threats from North Korea, 86,000 U.S. and South Korean troops on Monday launched their latest round of joint military exercises, described by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as a deterrent against war.

The 11-day drills, unlike naval exercises held last month in the Sea of Japan, are based largely on computer-simulated war games and are being held in the southern part of the peninsula.

In tandem with the exercises, 400,000 South Korean government employees will participate in an anti-terrorism drill that includes a simulated attack. Seoul will host the Group of 20 summit in November, and both U.S. and South Korean intelligence agencies fear a terrorist attack from Pyongyang.

On Sunday, North Korea threatened to respond to the drills with what a military spokesman called the "severest punishment" that anyone in the world has ever faced. Pyongyang routinely responds to U.S-South Korean exercises with threats, but tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been high since the March sinking of a South Korean warship. Seoul and Washington have blamed the sinking of the Cheonan on a North Korean torpedo attack....