Reuters. South Korean and U.S. troops held joint combat firing drills in Pocheon near the border with North Korea "to test and enhance combat readiness simulating enemy aggression", South Korea's military said on Thursday (January 4).
The exercise by a South Korean Army mechanised infantry brigade and U.S. Army armoured stryker brigade involved heavy weapons and took place over a week starting on Dec. 29 and ended on Thursday, the South Korean Army said in a statement.
The allies have dramatically increased the scale and intensity of joint drills in the past year amid escalating tension on the Korean peninsula as Pyongyang tested both long-range ballistic missiles and tactical weapons designed to strike targets in the South and the Pacific.
Pyongyang lambasted the allies for dangerous moves that push the region to the brink of "an inferno of nuclear war."
