NEWSS. Korea, U.S. to launch massive joint military drills
SEOUL, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) announced Tuesday that massive joint military drills between South Korean and U.S. troops will be launched throughout South Korea from March 25 to 31.
According to a statement by the CFC, about 29,000 U.S. troops, among which 23,000 from the U.S. forces based in South Korea and 6,000 others from the mainland of the United States or other U.S. overseas military bases, will join the "ROSI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) 07" and the "Foal Eagle" exercises with South Korean troops.
"ROSI is a regularly scheduled, annual joint/combined command-post exercise, which was first held in 1994, and is used by CFC, South Korean and U.S. force commanders to train and evaluate CFC capability to receive forces from bases outside of the country," the statement said.
The U.S.-South Korean military side has informed the Korean People's Army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) about the exercises and assured them that this is a defensive military readiness exercise and not meant to be provocative in anyway, the statement said.
The South Korea and U.S. troops have conducted the Foal Eagle joint drills annually since 1964 and the ROSI drills annually since 1994. The two exercises have been held together since 2002.
On Dec. 27, 2006, the DPRK's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun condemned the planning joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises scheduled for late March and described the planed exercise as "an undisguised act of destroying peace" in a commentary.