SEOUL, May 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's military will continue the annual joint war games with the United States this year, Seoul's defense ministry said Monday.
Defense Ministry spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo told a routine press briefing that there has been no change in stance that the joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States will continue.
The comment came after a lawmaker of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party claimed a possibility for the scaling down of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, an annually-held South Korea-U.S. computerized command post military drills scheduled for August.
Asked about whether to scale down the annual war games considering condemnation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the spokesperson said the scale will be similar to the previous ones.
It came after the DPRK called off the agreed-upon high-level talks with South Korea last week citing the air combat exercises between Seoul and Washington, codenamed Max Thunder.
The ongoing air drills reportedly mobilized about 100 aircrafts, including eight F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets. The radar-evading fighters are used to conduct a secret air raid.
