South Korea and United States have launched a joint anti-biological exercise to step up their combined response to potential biological attacks. The three-day Able Response 15 exercise will involve the defence departments of both the countries as well as the local health ministry and dozens of other institutions. The countries have been conducting the anti-bio exercise every year since 2011 amid increasing potential threats from North Korea’s biochemical weapons.
North Korea has condemned the drills deeming it as a war rehearsal for invasion against Pyongyang, consistently calling on the US to withdraw its 28,500 forces stationed in South Korea.
Facts About South Korea
- The name Korea is derived from the Kingdom of Goryeo, also spelled as Koryŏ.
- South Koreans love to shop. The country has some of the biggest shopping malls in the world.
- Between 1962 and 1994, South Korea’s tiger economy soared at an average of 10% annually, fueled by annual export growth of 20%
- South Korea is East Asia’s most developed country in the Human Development Index. Its citizens enjoy a very high standard of living.
- South Korea was named the world’s most innovative country in the Bloomberg Innovation Index, ranking first in research and development spent per GDP and patents filed per GDP.
- Roughly half of the country’s 51 million people reside in the Seoul Capital Area, which is the second largest in the world.
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