SEOUL — A major US-South Korean military exercise ended Thursday without incident despite harsh North Korean criticism of the drill and its threats of retaliation for any aggression.

"No unusual North Korean military movements were detected during the exercise," said a spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The annual Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise this year ran from March 8-18 and involved 18,000 American and 20,000 South Korean troops.

The North habitually denounces the exercise and other joint drills as a preparation for an attack on it. The United States and South Korea say it is purely defensive.

This year the communist state ordered its military on full alert and even announced readiness to "blow up" South Korean facilities in case of any attack.

The North's military is currently engaged in its own annual exercise which began in December and runs through April, Seoul defence ministry officials said.

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The US stations 28,500 troops in the South.

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