Anchor: South Korea and the U.S.'s annual combined military exercise the Ulchi Freedom Guardian kicked off Monday. Eighty-thousand troops will participate in the two-week drill. Our Kim In-kyung has more.

Report: The Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) is an annual military exercise supervised by the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command to assure security and maintain defense readiness on the Korean peninsula.

The two-week exercise continuing through next Friday mobilized 30-thousand U.S. troops, including three-thousand based outside Korea. The South Korean Army, Navy and Air Force mobilized 56-thousand troops under the operations command level and above.

Troops from seven countries that took part in the Korean War, including Britain and France, are observing the exercise. Swedish and Swiss troops from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission are participating in the drill to make sure that the combined forces adhere to the armistice agreement.

The Combined Forces Command said in a press release Monday that the UFG exercise is aimed at reviewing the defense readiness and deterrent power of South Korean and U.S. troops.

This year's exercise will be the last time that applies to Operation Plan 5027, which is the war plan of the Combined Forces Command. Operation Plan 5015 will go into effect next year as South Korean troops will begin supervising the exercise from 2013.

North Korea has blasted the annual drill, saying it is practice for an invasion of the North and that the South will be harshly punished under "fire and lightning" if it goes through with the exercise.

Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.