SKorea to scale back drills with U.S. for summit

SEOUL, Aug 13 (Reuters) South Korea will cut back its participation in joint military drills with the United States to better the mood for an inter-Korean summit this month, the president's spokesman said today.

North Korea has called on the US military to halt the drills, called Ulchi Focus Lens, which are scheduled to run Augst 20-31. The North has branded the annual exercise a prelude to invasion and nuclear war.

''It is a decision made to create the mood for a successful South-North summit meeting and in consideration of the other party,'' presidential spokesman Chun Ho-sun said.

South Korea will take part in computer simulation and communications exercises that are part of Ulchi Focus Lens, but will not send troops for the field manoeuvres, Chun said.

Field drills will take place after the August 28-30 summit between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Chun said.

A US Forces Korea spokesman said the computer simulation and communications exercise will go ahead as planned and South Korean troops will take part in those portions of the drills.

North Korea warned last week it would not ''remain a passive onlooker to (the drills), doing nothing.'' It regularly protests against the exercises, which have been conducted for years without major incident.

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 are deployed near the heavily armed border with the South.

The summit will be only the second for the two states, which have been technically in a state of war for more half a century because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce that has yet to be replaced by a peace agreement.

REUTERS SKB ND1445