According to the Chosun Daily, 26,000 US troops and over 50,000 RoK troops will participate in the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise all over the RoK.

Among the US troops, 14,000 are from overseas bases of the US military, the US Force Korea said earlier.

The USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier and a total of seven US Aegis destroyers will take part in the exercises, the Chosun Daily said.

The DPRK military has repeatedly urged the US military to cancel the exercises.

On March 9 the DPRK put its military on combat alert as US and RoK troops began the major joint exercise.

The DPRK military described the exercises as “unprecedented in the number of the aggressor forces involved and in their duration.”

The DPRK said it was switching off military phone and fax lines, which are used to approve border crossings, because it would be “nonsensical” to maintain normal channels during the drill.

Also on March 9, the DPRK said it will launch a war on the territory of the United States, Japan and the RoK, if its satellite launching “for peaceful purpose” was intercepted.

The RoK expressed “regrets” over Pyongyang’s cut-off of last military communications channel, Yonhap said on March 9.

“Our government regrets” the DPRK’s measure, Yonhap quoted the RoK’s Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun as saying.

The spokesman demanded that the DPRK immediately withdraw the measure on the principle of general inter-Korean agreements.