Anchor: Amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S., in an apparent warning, released photos of commando drills with South Korea. The move comes as Seoul and Washington boost aerial surveillance capabilities and efforts on and over the Korean Peninsula.
Arius Derr wraps up the situation.

Report: The U.S. Department of Defense on Monday published photos of South Korean and American special forces conducting a simulated raid on a North Korean military base and capturing an agent on site.

The allies also carried out close combat training and conducted an airborne landing exercise in Gangwon Province with U.S. forces descending from a Chinook helicopter.

Photos of such activities are rarely made public, and their distribution comes as concerns mount over a North Korean long-range missile or nuclear provocation.

The United States also flew an RC-135W Rivet Joint surveillance plane over the Korean Peninsula on Monday and last Saturday, with private aviation tracker Aircraft Spots noting the "odd timing" as such aircraft are not typically seen on weekends.

Multiple U.S. surveillance and other aircraft have been deployed over and near the Korean Peninsula this year, including B-52 bombers, as North Korea restarted short-range ballistic missile test-firings.

Also on Monday, South Korea bolstered its surveillance capabilities by receiving the first of three U.S.-made RQ-4 Global Hawk drones some eight years after Seoul decided to make the purchase.

The remotely-piloted reconnaissance aircraft can spot an object as small as 30 centimeters on the ground from an altitude of 20 kilometers. 

The increased U.S. and South Korean surveillance efforts and capabilities are considered, in part, a warning message to Pyongyang after it threatened to take an unspecified "new way" should the U.S. fail to make more concessions in denuclearization talks by year's end.

The regime also promised a "Christmas gift" for the U.S., which some believe may be an intercontinental ballistic missile launch following what are believed to be related engine tests at its key west coast space launch facility this month.
Arius Derr, KBS World Radio News.