Anchor: The U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has dismissed speculation that a reduction in U.S. troops participating in a joint exercise with South Korea is because of tension with the North. About seven-thousand-500 fewer troops will take part in this year’s exercise compared to last year.
Our Kim In-kyung has more.
 
Report: While traveling to Jordan on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis firmly denied the speculation that a reduction in U.S. troops participating in a joint exercise with South Korea is because of tension with the North.
 
[Sound bite: U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis]
“No...no...this is an exercise for the defense of Korea. It's a combined exercise and it's all worked out way in advance by the alliance officers and...the...yeah.” 
 
The annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint exercise began on Monday amid heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula. 
 
About 17-thousand-500 U.S. service members are participating in the exercise this month, down from 25-thousand last year. The U.S. is also unlikely to send its strategic assets, such as nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
 
Mattis said that the number of troops is by design to achieve the exercise’s objectives and that this year’s drill is focused on command post operations.
 
The defense chief said that the exercise operates transparently and is carefully planned out to prevent any miscalculations.

[Sound bite: U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis]
"North Korea knows this a fully defensive, for whatever they may say for public consumption, they know this is a defensive exercise. It's been going on, you know, for decades. The name has changed over the years, but it's the same type of thing going on." 
  
The reduced number of U.S. troops has sparked speculation that the allies might have scaled back the annual exercise in consideration of military tension with North Korea.
 
The North has made provocations every year around the time of the annual military exercises.
Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News. 

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