SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-hye presided over a National Security Council meeting Monday for the first time since taking office as part of joint annual military exercises by South Korea and the United States that kicked off earlier Monday.
It was Park's first NSC meeting since she took office in February.
When tensions were high earlier this year amid strident war threats from Pyongyang, she had held meetings with foreign and security-related ministers, rather than NSC meetings.
However, according to the state-run Yonhap news agency, Monday's meeting does not indicate that tensions with North Korea were any higher.
It was more of an exercise meeting as part of the war games, the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), which kicked off on the day for a 12-day run involving about 50,000 South Korean forces and approximately 30,000 U.S. servicemen.
Inter-Korean relations have shown signs of improvement in recent weeks, with the two sides reaching a breakthrough deal last week to reopen a joint industrial complex in the North's border city of Kaesong.
The sides are also scheduled to hold talks on setting up family reunions.
South Korea and the United States began their annual two-week joint war exercise on Monday, the Combined Forces Command (CFC) said, amid North Korea's unusual low-key stance to the war game that they strongly condemned in the past.
The computer-aided Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) kicked off for a 12-day run, mobilizing about 50,000 South Korean forces and approximately 30,000 U.S. servicemen, including some 3,000 from the U.S. and other bases in the Pacific region.
The CFC said the drills are intended to examine the forces' ability to secure security on the Korean Peninsula and maintain the joint defense capacities between the two allies.
The training is expected to include defense drills against North Korean provocations and cyber attacks that target the military network as well as contingencies involving weapons of mass destruction, according to military officials.
Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission observers will monitor the exercise along with seven United Nations Command (UNC) states Australia, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, New Zealand and Norway.
Along with the war exercise, the South Korean government will also hold a separate four-day emergency exercise from Monday.
The annual local drill, involving administrative bodies and public employees nationwide, is designed to examine the government's readiness for dealing with potential terrorist attacks and military provocations from the North. (QNA)
