Despite Threats, US and South Korea Begin Military Exercises
The BBC reports:
Large-scale military exercises involving American and South Korean troops have begun, prompting North Korea to threaten "all-out war".
The training drills are held every year and commanders insist they are purely defensive.
But talks between North and South Korea aimed at easing tensions between the two countries broke down recently.
Three months ago the North shelled a South Korean island, killing four people.
The exercises on land, sea and in the air involve 200,000 South Korean troops and nearly 13,000 Americans - most of whom are not based in the country.
In part it is a regular rehearsal for emergency deployments of US forces in the event of a sudden attack on South Korea.
Every year Pyongyang denounces the exercises, saying they are actually a pretext for an American invasion of the North to topple the communist government.
But this year's rhetoric is harsher: the North has threatened to turn the South's capital, Seoul, which sits less than 48km (30 miles) from the border and so well within range of artillery, into a "sea of fire".
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