South Korean and U.S. troops have begun a two-week computer simulated military exercise referred to as "Key Resolve" mobilizing 10,000 Korean forces and 3,500 American personnel testing various military operations, The South Korean Yonhap News Agency has reported.

North Korea's threat on ending the 1953 Armistice Agreement last week was largely shrugged off by the southern Counterpart as intensive sanctions have mounted upon the increasingly isolated North that will apparently "bite hard" according to the UN Security Council.

Pyongyang has also threatened to launch a nuclear attack on the United States although analysts believe that the warning is one of North Korea's increasingly growing rhetoric.

As an immediate response to the launch of the drill, two of South Korean official's phone call checks to their northern counterpart went unanswered, multiple sources have revealed.  North is apparently keeping up to its earlier promise to cut the Red Cross hotline communication channel if the drills are carried out.

The military exercise that will last until March 21 is one of the chain reactions against the Feb 12 nuclear test conducted by North Korea that prompted large-scale condemnation and led to U.N Security Council imposing tougher sanctions to the controversial nation.

Confrontational threats from North have rapidly intensified ever since sanctions were imposed, including a warning of preemptive attack. While they are considered to be commonplace speech-making of North Korea, a growing fear has surmounted the world community that a simple accident could trigger a world-threatening conflict.

North Korea's military forces would probably not outshine the U.S-South Korea led forces if the increasing tension in the Korean peninsula were to result in a war situation, most military assessments by experts have calculated.  

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