South Korea's latest military exercises coincide with it's diplomatic attempts to calm tensions in the Korean peninsula.
At a time when both the U.S. and South Korea are trying to quell tensions, the military exercises send a clear message to the north that South Korea is ready for a fight if necessary.
Relations have been frayed since North Korea shelled the island of Yeonpyang last year.
Although North Korea has proposed unconditional negotiations with the South, the U.S. and South Korea say that it must adhere to the 2005 agreement to abandon all nuclear programmes.
A U.S. envoy is heading to Japan as part of a tour designed to cool tensions in the Koreas, which have risen to their highest levels since the war between the North and South in the 1950S.
The U.S. has even been trying to persuade China, North Korea's biggest aid supplier, to engage in the negotiations.
2010 saw North Korea sink one of the South's warships, launch a deadly artillery attack on a South Korean island and reveal a previously unknown uranium-enrichment plant.
Al Jazeera's Azhar Sukri reports.
