Posted on 03/11/2010 1:20:16 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
US experts in weapons of mass destruction are taking part in a military exercise simulating an attack by North Korea on South Korea, the US commander in the South said Thursday.
The communist North has bitterly denounced the US-South Korean exercise as a preparation for a nuclear attack, and vowed to respond to any aggression with its atomic weapons.
The visiting experts are from a team called Task Force Elimination, of the Maryland-based 20th Support Command.
US commander General Walter Sharp said they brought unique WMD expertise to the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle drill, in which 18,000 American troops and 20,000 Koreans are taking part.
"They are here for this exercise and if we ever went to war, they would naturally come also," he told a press conference.
Sharp said troops from both countries have a shared responsibility for locating, securing and eliminating weapons of mass destruction in case of a North Korean attack.
The general said the exercise tests US and South Korean capabilities "to be prepared to fight and win if we had to go to war today". But the US and South Korea insist it is purely defensive.
The North has staged two atomic weapons tests and has thousands of conventionally-armed missiles deployed near the inter-Korean border.
South Korea's defence ministry says its neighbour also has between 2,500-5,000 tons of chemical weapons.
Sharp said the artillery is a focus of the March 8-18 exercise
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
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