S. Korean, US militaries to practice removing N. Korean WMDs

Armed forces of South Korea and the US will form a joint unit to practice removing North Korean weapons of mass destruction (WMD) during their upcoming joint exercise, a government source said Sunday. "During the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) from August 16 to 26, South Korea and the US will conduct both virtual and real exercises with their joint task force," the source said. The unit will be formally called the Joint Task Force for Elimination (JTF-E) of WMDs. The virtual exercise will be computer simulated, in which participants will detect WMDs and have troops or weapons destroy them, South Korea''s (Yonhap) news agency reported. In the field, the joint unit will practice locating, destroying and disassembling WMDs, and moving them to different locations. According to the source, some 350 troops from the US Army''s 20th Support Command and South Korea''s Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Defense Command will form the JTF-E. Last year, the two commands held their first joint WMD-elimination exercise. "In contingencies, the JTF-E will be tasked with identifying North Korean facilities suspected of producing WMDS and destroying them in four steps," the source said. "South Korean forces will be part of that mission." Military officials have said South Korea should develop capabilities to carry out independent operations to remove WMDs by 2015, when the wartime operational control is returned to the South from the US The US has said it will still conduct WMD-removal operations beyond 2015. But a South Korean military official said Seoul should be prepared for contingencies if the US 20th Support Command fails to reach South Korea on time.