Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Lee Sun-jin inspected the combat readiness posture of a joint South Korea-U.S. military division stationed near the inter-Korean border on Tuesday, the JCS said. 
  

Lee visited the Combined Division inside the U.S. Forces Korea's Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, located south of the Demilitarized Zone, and inspected the division's joint defense posture, it said in a statement.
  

South Korea and the U.S. launched the combined division in June, consisting of a South Korean brigade and forces from the USFK's Second Infantry Division under the command of Maj. Gen. Theodore Martin, the commander of the U.S. division.
  

"The Combined Division is a symbol of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and it's the most powerful force," Lee said during his meeting with Martin.
 
 
He stressed the allies' joint efforts to protect the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula, the JCS said.
  

The JCS chairman also visited the U.S.' 210th Field Artillery Brigade in the area and inspected the U.S. forces' artillery counterattack capabilities there.
  

Lee's move came after the South Korean military conducted a live-fire artillery drill near the country's border islands along the Northern Limit Line, de facto inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea, on Monday.
  

North Korea had threatened to retaliate mercilessly if the South goes ahead with the exercise. (Yonhap)