Korea's Marine Corps has participated in a multinational peacekeeping exercise in Mongolia aimed at strengthening interoperability with participating forces, the armed service said Friday. The Khaan Quest exercise, held from June 20 to July 3, took place near Ulaanbaatar involving some 700 troops from 17 nations, including the United States, India, Britain and Germany. During the drills, the troops conducted a field training exercise in a simulated contingency scenario in a disputed region. Notably, this year's exercise involved the Marine Corps integrating advanced combat systems, such as gun sights and high-performance magnifiers, onto its K2C1 rifles to improve training outcomes. On Tuesday, Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, visited the training site, where he stressed the need for deeper multinational cooperation among U.S. allies and partners. Launched in 2003, Khaan Quest began as a bilateral exercise between Mongolia and the U.S., before growing into a multinational peacekeeping exercise involving U.S. allies and partners in the Pacific region. Korea has p