South Korea and the United States were to begin a joint annual military exercise on Monday, defying warnings from North Korea that the war games will jeopardise nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington, Aljazeera reports.
"Our joint exercise to verify [Seoul's] capabilities for its envisioned retaking of wartime operational control is being prepared," a South Korean defence ministry official said.
The exercises will be focused on verifying Seoul's capabilities for its planned retaking of wartime operational control of its troops from Washington. It did not confirm reports that the drills began on Monday.
The drills come after Pyongyang tested a series of short-range projectiles in recent days, calling one of them a "solemn warning" to Seoul against pursuing the mainly computer-simulated drills with Washington.
Under the US-South Korea security treaty, an American general will take command of their combined forces in the event of war, but Seoul has long sought to reverse the position.
