South Korea plans to conduct a massive military exercise near the Dokdo islet, which Japan also claims sovereignty and calls Takeshima, in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) on Wednesday, South Korean Defense Ministry said.

The South Korean Navy will dispatch 6 vessels, including a 3, 000-ton destroyer, and P-3C maritime patrol aircraft, Lynx anti- submarine helicopters to join the drills. The South Korean Coast Guard will also send two patrol vessels to the area, said Kang Sok- koo, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry.

South Korea's 15-K supersonic fighter jets, which were fully operational earlier this month, will participate in the exercise, Kang told Xinhua.

Kang said that Wednesday's exercise has no direct relations with Japan's claim to Dokdo in mid-July, stressing that the exercise is a normal military one.

According to a statement by the Navy released on Tuesday, Wednesday's exercise will be conducted under a scenario that an imaginary enemy force infiltrates the territorial waters of Dokdo. The South Korean Navy, the maritime police and the Air Force then conduct a joint operation to collect intelligence, identify foes and dispel the enemy.

The Defense Ministry said last Monday it will conduct two training exercises separately in July and November near Dokdo.

Wednesday's military exercise will be the largest in scale since the so-called Dokdo Protection Exercise began in 1996, Navy officials said.

South Korea insists that the Dokdo islets, located some 89 km southeast to South Korea's Uleung Island and 160 km northwest to Japan's Oki Island, have been listed as its territory in history literature since the fifth century.

Japan claims the islets have been its territory since the 17th century, as written in literature.

South Korea has controlled the Dokdo islets since the 1950s.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)