SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's military is talking with its U.S. counterpart about whether to mobilize U.S. strategic assets, such as nuclear-capable bombers and nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, during the upcoming joint war games in spring.
Seoul's defense ministry said in a report to the parliament's defense committee that it is consulting with the U.S. about an expanded mobilization of strategic assets during the upcoming Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military exercises.
It is aimed at showing off their determined will to respond to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s threats through the biggest-ever joint war games as seen in 2016, according to the report.
The Key Resolve command post exercise and the Foal eagle field training exercise tend to be conducted between March and April every year. Pyongyang has denounced those as a rehearsal for northward invasion.
The largest-ever spring war games were carried out last year following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January and the launch in February of a space rocket carrying a satellite, which Seoul sees as a disguised test of a long-range ballistic missile.
This year's war games are forecast to mobilize U.S. strategic assets such as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and a submarine as well as nuclear-capable bombers and stealth fighter jets.
The possibility gets higher after the DPRK test-launched an intermediate-range Pukguksong-2 ballistic missile that flew 500 km towards the eastern waters on Sunday, the first since U.S. President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.
