ROK, US end joint military exercises

SEOUL -- The combined forces of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States ended their weekslong joint annual military exercises on Tuesday as scheduled, according to local media reports.

The command post computer-simulated joint military drills were launched early this month, not mobilizing military equipment and armed forces, to verify the ROK military's initial operational capability (IOC) for the transfer of wartime operational control of the ROK's troops from Washington to Seoul.

ROK's wartime operational command was handed over to the US-led UN Command after the three-year Korean War broke out in 1950. Seoul regained its peacetime command in 1994.

Choi Hyun-soo, spokesperson of Seoul's defense ministry, told a press briefing that the assessment on the drills will follow the end of the exercises.

The ROK-US military drills were staged amid the harsh denunciation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).