South Korea, U.S. hold live-fire drill amid uncertainty on both sides

South Korea, U.S. hold live-fire drill amid uncertainty on both sides

On a frigid Monday morning, the explosive boom of tank fire and the buzz of Apache helicopters broke the silence of a mountainous area a short distance from North Korea.

Operating the heavy machinery were U.S. and South Korean infantry troops carrying out a combined exercise involving roughly 150 soldiers. The two sides have, since the Korean War of the early 1950s, fought together in these mountains to ward off aggression from the North.