(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Marines of South Korea and the United States held a large-scale command post exercise last week when North Korea fired scores of rockets in a show of force against the allies' annual military drills, the Marine Corps in Seoul said Monday.
About 500 South Korean Marines and 1,500 American troops from III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) conducted their joint exercise in the southeastern cities of Pohang and Daegu from March 15-23, as part of the two-month Foal Eagle combat field training that runs through April 18, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.
During the nine-day exercise, North Korea launched a total of 71 short-range rockets from its east coast on three separate days -- March 16, 22 and 23 -- drawing criticism from Seoul and Washington.
"South Korea and the US Marines formed a joint combat force to discuss major contingencies and establish operational plans," a South Korean Marine Corps official said. "It is the first time that Marine Corps commandants and senior officials of both nations joined the command post exercise."
III MEF is one of the Marine Air-Ground Task Forces of the U.S. Marine Corps, which is able to deploy rapidly to conduct amphibious assaults and high-intensity combat operations.
Under the Operations Plan 5027 (OPLAN 5027), a South Korea-US military plan for the defense against a North Korean invasion, the forward-deployed Okinawa-based force will be first dispatched to the Korean Peninsula to reinforce a combined force that's staging a major air campaign and amphibious landings in the North
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