TOKYO (Sputnik) — South Korea should remain fully prepared for possible surprise attacks from the North, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Lee Sun-jin said Wednesday.
"It is necessary to maintain full alert to enemy's provocations," Lee said while visiting the site of large-scale US-South Korean military exercises, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
Beginning on Monday, 17,000 US troops and 300,000 South Korean soldiers are taking part in annual joint exercises called Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, to practice scenarios of eliminating Pyongyang's supposed weapons of mass destruction.
Tensions over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs escalated after Pyongyang said on January 6 that it had successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test and put a satellite into orbit on February 7, violating UN Security Council resolutions and triggering condemnation from the international community in both cases.
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