S. Korea, U.S. troops start military drill amid N. Korea threat+

SEOUL, Aug. 16 Kyodo - South Korean and U.S. forces started their annual joint military drill Monday despite a warming by North Korea that it would take a ''resolute military response'' to the exercise, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry.

In the Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill that will last for two weeks, 56,000 South
Korean troops and some 30,000 U.S. troops will participate in the computerized
command post exercise, a statement from the ministry said.
President Lee Myung Bak said the drill is ''an exercise for peace and war
deterrence'' and ordered the armed forces to conduct the drill ''thoroughly,''
Lee's spokeswoman Kim Hee Jung quoted Lee as telling a special Cabinet meeting,
according to Yonhap News Agency.
''As a divided nation, we need to conduct the training thoroughly, not by
formality,'' Lee was quoted as saying.
The North Korean military's general staff on Sunday denounced the military
drill, warning North Korea will take a ''resolute military response'' in
retaliation.
The warning, attributed to a spokesman for the Korean People's Army general
staff, was carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
''We will pursue a resolute military response that will serve as punishment so
severe that no one has experienced before,'' the statement said.
The North Korean statement did not specify the nature of the ''military
response'' Pyongyang is contemplating.
On Aug. 9, the North Korean military fired about 110 artillery rounds toward
its own territorial waters in the Yellow Sea, a move to coincide with the last
day of a naval exercise South Korea conducted close to the maritime border with
the North.
According to the South Korean military, about 10 of the artillery pieces fell
into South Korean waters.
==Kyodo