S. Korea to conduct joint military drills with U.S. as planned

South Korea will conduct joint military exercises with the United States this year as scheduled despite the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) call for suspension, the Defense Ministry said Monday in a report to President Park Geun-hye.

The "Key Resolve" command post exercise and the "Foal Eagle" field training drill will be staged in early March as planned, together with the "Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG)" computer-assisted simulation exercise, which tends to kick off in mid-August.

The announcement came after Pyongyang proposed to temporarily suspend nuclear tests if Washington halts its annual war games with Seoul this year, but the United States has rejected the proposal.

President Park said a unified Korea should be pursued based on firm security, stressing the need to expand military capability while soundly maintaining the "South Korea-U.S. allied defense posture."

Park said South Korea should urge the DPRK to "strategically" abandon its nuclear program when she received a briefing from four ministries in charge of unification, defense and foreign affairs.

The South Korean military also plans to participate in this year's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) scheduled to be conducted in September in New Zealand to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Endi