SEAL Team 6 is training for a decapitation strike against North Korea's Kim regime
The SEALs, who will join the exercise for the first time, will simulate a decapitation attack, or a strike to remove North Korea's leadership.
This fits with a March 1 Wall Street Journal report that the White House is considering military action against the Kim regime.
The SEALs boarded the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, and should arrive in South Korea on Wednesday, Joon Gang Daily reports.
The US effort for a decapitation force mirrors attempts by South Korea, and seem to have increased in intensity after North Korea's latest missile test, which simulated a saturation attack to defeat US and allied missile defenses.
"It will send a very strong message to North Korea, which is constantly carrying out military provocations," a ministry official told Joon Gang Daily.
The Foal Eagle exercise includes 3,600 US troops in addition to the 28,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea. The drills include air, land, and sea operations designed to prepare the joint forces for a possible conflict with North Korea. This year's exercise also integrates preparation for the deployment of US missile defenses to South Korea.
Additionally, the US's newest combat aircraft, the F-35, will fly in to simulate attacks on North Korea's missile infrastructure, Joon Gang Daily reports. The F-35 will accompany many of the US's most high end platforms, like F-22s and a nuclear-powered submarine.
"A bigger number of and more diverse US special operation forces will take part in this year's Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North's war command and demolition of its key military facilities," the an unnamed military official told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.