S. Korea, US start drills despite N. Korea’s nuclear threat

South Korean and USA troops began a massive military exercise on Monday, simulating an all-out attack by North Korea.

“Given that the possibility of North Korean provocations is higher than ever before, and North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are direct and real ones, our drills must be like real (battle operations)”, Park said, referring to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, an annual war game jointly carried out by the South Korean and US troops across the nation.

The two-week annual Ulchi Freedom exercise is largely computer-simulated, but still involves around 50,000 Korean and 25,000 United States soldiers.

The defections signal a “serious fracture” within the North Korea’s regime, escalating the prospects of provocation as Kim tries to maintain control, Park said.

Her comments came a day after the Unification Ministry in Seoul urged all citizens to be on guard against possible North Korean assassination attempts on defectors and anti-Pyongyang activists in the South.

Calling for national unity in overcoming security challenges, the president noted that Pyongyang is moving on an “extremist path” that aims to keep South Korea on edge.

Thae Yong-ho, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain, recently defected to South Korea with his family – a case that observers here say highlights that the loyalty of the North’s elites towards its leader Kim Jong-un has been eroding.

The North’s military said it would turn Seoul and Washington into “a heap of ashes through a Korean-style pre-emptive nuclear strike” if they show any signs of aggression toward the North’s territory.

“The situation on the Korean peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out any moment”, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, citing a statement from the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army.

North Korea has become further isolated after a January nuclear test, its fourth, and the launch of a long-range rocket in February brought tightened U.N. Security Council sanctions that Pyongyang defied with several ballistic missile launches.

The January nuclear test heightened North Korea’s isolation as the global community, backed by the North’s main diplomatic protector China, imposed substantially upgraded economic sanctions. In response to substantially increased global sanctions, Pyongyang has shut down the two existing hotlines with South Korea and its only direct communications link with the United States.

Pyongyang has remained defiant, and there are concerns that the leadership might choose to lash out after a spate of headline-grabbing defections.