Tension

S. Korea Heats Up War Games

Large live-fire exercises close to border.

After South Korea’s military exercise two days ago didn’t get a reaction from the North, they’ve decided to do a bigger drill, featuring more artillery, jets, and with a 100-foot steel Christmas tree on the border that the North has denounced as “propaganda.” “The scale of mechanized assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have six K-9 mechanized artillery, we'll have 36," a South Korean army officer said, adding that “most of the mechanized assets taking part will be firing live ammunition.” The new round of drills comes after Gov. Bill Richardson said he saw signs that North Korea was ready to negotiate, an overture that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seemed to dismiss, saying, “The six-party talks will be restarted again when the North Koreans display a willingness to change behavior. We're not going to get a table in a room and have six-party talks just for the feel-good notion of having six-party talks.”