South Korea and the United States will kick off annual joint military games later this month in several locations in South Korea, the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) announced Wednesday in a press release.

RSOI 05 (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) exercises will be held from March 19 to 25. Moreover, the FOAL EAGLE (FE) drill will be held along the RSOI 05 for the consecutive four years, said the release.

"RSOI/FE 05, like all other CFC exercises, is defense-oriented and designed to improve the command's ability to defend the ROK (Republic of Korea) against external aggression," the CFC said in the release.

It said the two joint military drills will include all equipment, capabilities and personnel of the CFC.

South Korean Yonhap News Agency quoted US official as reportingthat some 17,000 US troops, 11,000 of them from overseas bases, will take part in this years drills, along with the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, high speed vessels and Stryker armored vehicles.

The RSOI is a scheduled annual military exercise first held in 1994 and used by the CFC, ROK and the US forces commanders to train and evaluate command capabilities to receive US forces from bases outside South Korea, it said.

The FE is focused on rear area security and stability operations, onward movement of critical assets, and select warfighting training events, said the release.

About 32,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea currently. According to an agreement the two allies agreed on, the US troops will be reduced to 25,000 in South Korea at the end of 2006.

Source: Xinhua