(6 Nov 1998) Natural Sound
VOICED BY PHILIPPA MEAGHER
Troops from the United States and South Korea are taking part in a joint field exercise which North Korea says is in preparation for an invasion of the north.
This year's "Foal Eagle" exercise is the 37th since 1961, and North Korea's propaganda machine is being harshly critical for the 37th time.
00 05 Although they're not fighting a real enemy this time - for everyone taking part - it's deadly serious.
The threat of attack from the North is ever-present.
And these exercises are designed to see how the two armies would cope if the North did invade.
Washington and Seoul describe them as "routine and defensive."
But not too defensive - as in the past, the drill is being staged in areas well south of the border with the North.
00 27 - It's a huge operation involving most of South Korea's army - six hundred and fifty thousand troops in all.
00 33 UPSOT tank
00 37 As well as the thirty seven thousand U-S troops stationed in South Korea.
Even before the exercises began, North Korea called them "preparations for a new war in the 21st century."
The Korean peninsula was divided into the communist North and the capitalist South in 1945.
The two fought a three-year war in the early 1950s which ended without a peace treaty.
So technically - they are still at war... and for this week - it certainly looked like it.
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