South Korea starts large military drills

Seoul, South Korea - The South Korean army said it started its military exercise Thursday that it has called its largest land and air winter drills.

The army said the drills started at 2 p.m. Thursday.

The long-planned drills are being held just 15 miles from South Korea's longtime adversary North Korea.

More than 800 military personnel are scheduled to take part in the exercise in Pocheon, a media officer from the South Korean army said. It will include six fighter jets, anti-tank missiles, and involve more than 100 types of weapons.

The drills -- scheduled in 2009 -- come at a time when the country is on high-alert, after Pyongyang shelled a South Korean island in the Yellow Sea that resulted in four deaths.

The hostilities come as North Korea is undergoing a transition -- the ailing leader Kim Jong Il is believed to be in the process of transferring power to his son, Kim Jong Un. Some analysts believe the upcoming internal changes have prompted the North to flex its military muscle.

After Japan's defeat in World War II, Korea became a divided nation, the free-enterprise South and the communist North.

Over the past six decades, small-scale skirmishes have flared repeatedly along both land and sea borders as each state aimed to reunify the peninsula according to its own terms and system of government. Deadly naval clashes occurred along the demarcation line in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

Over this past year, the Korean peninsula has been gripped by anxiety over the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship. Forty-six sailors died in the March incident, widely blamed on North Korea -- which denies responsibility.

Tensions rose higher last month, when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians. The North accused the South of provoking the Yeonpyeong attack because shells from a South Korean military drill landed in the North's waters.

South Korea's navy also opened regular exercises in the East Sea on Wednesday that will run for four days, and Seoul held a live-fire naval drill that ended peacefully Monday after an hour and 34 minutes.

North Korean military leaders said retaliation wasn't necessary but issued a stern warning to South Korea and the United States, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Seoul has not ruled out the possibility of unforeseen provocations in borders areas and possibly on large civilian gatherings.