U.S. And South Korea Practice A Massive Landing Drill

POHANG, SOUTH KOREA - MAR. 12: On Saturday March 12 U.S. and South Korean troops staged a massive landing drill, their largest ever, on the east coast of South Korea that mobilized 17,200 soldiers, including some from Australia and New Zealand, according to local media reports. North Korea's military threatened to preemptively strike U.S. and South Korean forces engaged in joint exercises across the border and said that if war breaks out again, it aims to "liberate" the whole of South Korea. The General Staff of the Korean People's Army, in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said its forces are "waiting for the dignified Supreme Command to issue an order to launch a preemptive strike of justice on the aggressors." "The gun roar for retaliating against the aggressors will turn out to be fireworks celebrating national reunification," it said, while vowing "to liberate the whole of south Korea including Seoul." North Korea's latest threat comes five days after South Korea and the United States began their largest-ever annual military exercises, amid tensions heightened in the wake of the U.N. Security Council's approval of tougher sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its illicit pursuit of nuclear and missile programs.