US tells North Korea of military drills with South

SEOUL, July 27 (Reuters) The US told North Korea today it plans to hold joint military exercises with the South next month, an annual drill which has often drawn complaints from Pyongyang.

U.S. Forces Korea have been holding the computer simulation and communications exercise with South Korean forces, known as Ulchi Focus Lens, for years without major incident.

North Korea's communist party newspaper has previously criticised the exercises as ''a highly dangerous play with fire in which the United States and South Korean bellicose forces seek to provoke a nuclear war against the DPRK''.

DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

About 10,000 US troops -- 5,000 stationed in the South and 5,000 from overseas -- will take part in the exercises, due to run from Aug. 20-31, along with an undisclosed number of South Korean troops.

A US military spokesman said North Korea was notified through a United Nations military command structure set up under the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The United States has about 30,000 troops in the South to support Seoul's 670,000-strong military. The North has about 1.2 million troops, most of whom deployed near the heavily armed border with the South.

REUTERS AE VC1101