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TEHRAN, November 05 - About 500 United States and South Korean marines began small-scale military drills on Monday, just days before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to hold talks with North Korea on denuclearization and plans for a second summit of their leaders.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The Korean Marine Exchange Program was among the training drills indefinitely suspended in June after U.S. President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore and promised to end joint, U.S.-South Korea military exercises.
Although larger exercises were suspended, the two countries have continued small-scale drills, the South's Ministry of National Defense said on Monday, adding that the marines were holding a training round near the southern city of Pohang.
Pompeo, interviewed on broadcaster CBS's "Face the Nation," said on Sunday he would be in New York City at the end of this week to meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol.
"I expect we’ll make some real progress, including an effort to make sure that the summit between our two leaders can take place, where we can make substantial steps towards denuclearization," he added.
In Washington last week, South Korea's defence minister said the two countries would decide by December on major joint military exercises for 2019. Vigilant Ace, suspended this month, is one of several such exercises halted to encourage dialogue with Pyongyang, which has criticised joint U.S.-South Korea exercises in the past.
The biggest combat-readiness war game ever staged in and around Japan has gone ahead, however, with nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan joining Japanese destroyers and a Canadian warship in the ocean off Japan, another key player in the effort to pressure North Korea.
This week's exercises follow a warning by North Korea on Friday that it could resume development of its nuclear program if the United States did not drop its campaign of "maximum pressure" and sanctions.
"The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible," a foreign ministry official said in a statement released through state-run KCNA news agency.
Source: Reuters
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