S.Korea, U.S. Practice Attacking N.Korea's WMD Facilities

South Korea and the U.S. are staging massive combined drills to practice seizing North Korea's weapons of mass destruction facilities.

The Defense Ministry here said Thursday that South Korea's armored brigade in the Army Capital Mechanized Infantry Division and the Stryker brigade of the South Korea-U.S. Command Forces have been conducting massive winter drills since Monday. They end on Friday.

They mobilized some 1,200 troops and 158 armored combat vehicles to practice discovering and infiltrating a mock-up North Korean WMD storage facility in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

A military spokesman here said, "Combat personnel in Stryker and K200 APCs dismounted fast and seized the enemy facility in a surprise move."

A response team in a K216 nuclear/biological/chemical reconnaissance vehicle practiced detecting and handling WMDs and hazardous materials.

Troops also practiced infiltrating enemy lines in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, while a live-fire exercise was also held on another training ground under the command of a South Korean officer. Gunners fired some 200 rounds from tanks' turret machine guns to cover troop movements.