U.S., South Korea Set for Joint Drills

The United States and South Korea announced plans Tuesday to begin an annual joint military exercise on March 2, a move that will likely fuel tensions with North Korea. The drills, known as the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, provoke tensions on the Korean peninsula each year and have led to such responses as Pyongyang threatening a pre-emptive nuclear strike and launching missile tests. In January, Pyongyang offered a moratorium on nuclear testing if the annual exercises were canceled, but the U.S. declined the proposal and called it an "implicit threat." The two nations' Combined Forces Command said in a statement North Korea had been informed of the exercises.