WASHINGTON – The United States and South Korea are expected to approve a series of joint military drills when the U.S. secretaries of state and defense visit Seoul next week, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The naval and air exercises in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan are meant partly to send a message of deterrence to North Korea following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 sailors, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.

The reclusive North has denied responsibility but is widely blamed for the attack.

“We are not yet ready to discuss the precise details of those exercises but they will involve a wide range of assets and are expected to be initiated in the near future,” Morrell said.

The Pentagon had announced anti-submarine drills but said the details, including the timing, were still unclear. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are expected finalize the plans when they meet their counterparts in Seoul on July 21.

“We are going to have what will likely be a final consultation on this matter when the two secretaries meet with their counterparts in Seoul,” Morrell said.

China has expressed concern about reports a U.S. aircraft carrier may join an anti-submarine exercise. Morrell declined to comment on what ships or aircraft would be involved in the drills, but said Beijing had no say about exercises in the open sea.

“Obviously (the Chinese) are a regional power and a country … obviously whose opinion we respect and consider,” Morrell said.

“But this is a matter of our ability to exercise in open seas, in international waters. Those determinations are made by us and us alone.”

The United States has about 28,000 forces in South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North nearly six decades after the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The U.S. military had long planned to hand over wartime operational control of Korean forces by 2012. But President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed last month to push back that date until the second half of 2015.

The delay was meant to send a clear message about U.S. staying power in the region and had been under discussion months before warship’s sinking, U.S. officials say.

Courtesy by thestar.com