SKorea and US start new round of war games

Tens of thousands of South Korean and American troops took part in a new round of war games between the two countries today, which are due to last ten days. Officials say the games are focused on the interception of mock North Korean attacks using nuclear weapons, missiles and submarines.

AFP

North Korea has threatened to retaliate, describing this latest round of drills as a rehearsal for a full-scale military invasion.

South Korea has been carrying out military excercises either on its own or with the US over the last month.

Pyongyang is also holding a South Korean fishing boat it captured last week off the east coast saying that it was in the North's territorial waters.

Tensions between the two sides of the Korean Peninsula have risen sharply since South Korea accused North Korea of sinking of one of its warships in March, killing 46 crew - a claim North Korea denies.

Meanwhile, on Sunday South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak unveiled a roadmap for what he called peaceful reunification of the peninsula, which includes a tax for South Koreans to pay for it.

He presented this in a speech celebrating Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, before their 1950 to 1953 war broke out and divided them.