South Korea and the United States will wrap up their combined defense drills on Thursday as scheduled amid renewed tensions on the peninsula, officials said.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, which started on Aug. 21, has involved more than 50,000 South Korea troops and around 17,500 American service members, including 3,000 from overseas bases.

Seven other member states of the United Nations Command -- Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Britain -- also took part in it.
 

The command post practice has focused on war games based on the allies' Operational Plan 5015 for an emergency situation on the peninsula and joint deterrence strategies.

The North has protested the training with a series of provocations. It fired a ballistic missile on Tuesday that flew over Japan following the launch of three short-range rockets.

The US has not dispatched major strategic assets such as long-range bombers and an aircraft carrier to the UFG, which is not a field exercise.

Instead, three senior US military commanders -- Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris, Strategic Command head Gen. John Hyten and Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves -- observed the UFG in person last week.

They also issued a warning to the North in a joint press conference held in front of two Patriot missile launchers at the Osan Air Base south of Seoul. It was also attended by Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, leader of the US Forces Korea.

"Even after the end of the UFG, our military will maintain a high level defense posture and readiness against North Korea's additional provocations," a South Korean defense official said. (Yonhap)