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SEOUL, Friday (AFP) Thousands of US troops on Friday began major war games near the heavily fortified inter-Korean border to test their ability to defend against attacks from North Korea, US officials said.

They said the exercise would last until March 10 at a strategic point near the demilitarized zone which has divided the Korean peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War.

"Some 5,000 troops of the US Army's Second Infantry Division are taking part in the drill," a US military spokesman said.

The 15,000-strong Second Infantry Division is headquartered in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers (24 miles) north of Seoul and straddling an invasion route used by the North Korean People's Army in 1950.

Some 37,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea under a mutual defense pact that was signed at the end of the Korean War.

The drill, called Iron ARTEP (Army Readiness Training and Evaluation Program), is aimed at "testing units' abilities to conduct wartime missions," said Major Curtis Roberts, spokesman for the Second Infantry Division.

"This is a semi-annual drill. It has nothing to do with current political or diplomatic situation," he said. "The main agenda of the drill is to test and evaluate units' abilities to conduct wartime missions."

"Nearly one-third of 15,000 soldiers assigned will be mobilized for the drill," he added.

ARTEP has been planned as a warm-up drill ahead of RSOI/FE 03, other US military officials said, referring to annual joint exercises to be staged by US and South Korean troops from March 4 to April 2.

RSOI-FE 03 focuses on a mock battle aimed at evaluating command capabilities and the deployment of US forces from abroad. A US aircraft carrier would be sent to waters around the Korean peninsula as part of those war games.

US officials have described the exercises as purely defensive, while North Korea routinely denounces military drills in South Korea as preparations for an invasion.

The Korean War ended in a fragile armistice and the Korean peninsula remains the world's last Cold War frontier with nearly two million troops ready for combat either side of the tense frontier.

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