Article Posted on : - Aug 19, 2010

A file photo.

SEOUL (AFP): The United States and South Korea will carry out a joint anti-submarine exercise in the Yellow Sea in September, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting Seoul's defence ministry.

The exercise will be part of a series being carried out by the two allies since March, when a South Korean warship was destroyed in the Yellow Sea, on the western side of the Korean peninsula, claiming 46 lives.

Citing a multinational inquiry, Seoul has blamed the loss of the warship, the Cheonan, on a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine, an allegation which Pyongyang has vehemently denied.

Any military drills involving the United States in the Yellow Sea are a sensitive issue because of the region's proximity to China and its disputed maritime boundary between South and North Korea.

In July, the United States and South Korea moved their first joint exercise since the sinking of the Cheonan from the Yellow Sea to the eastern side of the Korean peninsula after Beijing raised concerns about "regional tensions."

China, North Korea's closest ally and its most important source of economic and other aid, has refused to criticise Pyongyang over the Cheonan incident and has repeatedly warned Washington and Seoul against the exercises.

South Korea and the United States are currently engaged in their latest exercise, a 10-day round of war games involving tens of thousands of troops that began Monday.

Last week, South Korea held an anti-submarine drill in the Yellow Sea -- but without any US involvement.

Yonhap gave no further details of the latest exercise, quoting the Ministry of National Defence as saying only that "South Korea and the US will conduct joint anti-submarine drills in the Yellow Sea in early September."

Further details of the exercises are yet to be confirmed, the ministry was quoted as saying.