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South Korea, US Prepare for Anti-Sub Warfare Drill

   Steve Herman | Seoul 24 September 2010

   The  United  States  and South Korea are preparing to hold a joint sea
   exercise,  scheduled to begin the day before the expected opening of a
   rare meeting of North Korea's only political party.
   South  Korean and U.S. military officials say the five-day exercise is
   meant  to send a strong message of deterrence to North Korea, and also
   to  strengthen  the  general capacity of joint anti-submarine warfare,
   says Army Colonel Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman for the South Korean Joint
   Chiefs of Staff.

   The  official North Korean newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, condemned the
   war  games,  saying  they "may drive the situation to an unpredictable
   grave phase."
   The  maneuvers  begin  the  day before North Korea's Workers' Party is
   scheduled  to hold its first meeting since 1966, at which a leadership
   shuffle   is   expected.  It  was  originally  expected  to  begin  by
   mid-September,  and official North Korean media gave no reason for the
   delay.
   Analysts  speculate  that at this conference Kim Jong Un, the youngest
   son  of supreme leader Kim Jong Il, will be named to a committee post,
   the first step for him to eventually succeed his ailing father.
   The  meeting  and the military exercises come as tensions appear to be
   easing on the Korean peninsula.
   The  U.S.  and South Korea have held a series of training exercises as
   part  of  their  response to the sinking of a South Korean warship six
   months  ago.  An  international  investigation  concluded that a North
   Korean torpedo destroyed the Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
   Pyongyang  denies  responsibility.  China has joined in North Korea in
   denouncing  the  exercises,  particularly  this  one, because it takes
   place in the Yellow Sea, close to Chinese territory.
   In  recent  weeks,  however, rhetoric has cooled. South Korea recently
   sent aid to help North Korea recover from devastating floods.
   North  Korea also proposed resuming a program to re-unite long-divided
   families.  On  Friday,  officials from the Red Cross committees of the
   two  Koreas met at Kaesong, just north of the heavily fortified border
   for  their second round of talks on holding another reunion. The first
   discussion, a week ago, failed to reach agreement on a venue.
   The two Koreas remain at war, technically. Their three-year civil war,
   which ended with a truce but no treaty in 1953, caused several million
   civilian and military casualties and separated countless families.