US, Japan, South Korea hold anti-missile drills with an eye on China, Pyongyang
- South Korea’s new president has moved to step up joint exercises with the US as his government takes a tougher line with China and the North
- Washington, Tokyo and Seoul agreed at a June meeting in Singapore to conduct the drills, to show their willingness to work together
“The purpose of this exercise is to strengthen the ability to respond against ballistic missiles and improve the ability to conduct joint operations,” South Korea’s defence ministry said in a statement on Tuesday about the drills. Moon’s government in June said the Pacific Dragon drills would be held, using destroyers with Aegis missile-defence systems to respond to threats from North Korea.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and new Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada spoke by phone after the drills, and agreed on the importance of cooperation with South Korea in dealing with the North Korean situation, Japan’s Defence Ministry said.
Also on Tuesday, the South’s military announced it would begin the biggest combined military training in years with the US next week under the name of Ulchi Freedom Shield. The drills, from August 22 to September 1, will include field exercises involving aircraft, warships, tanks and potentially tens of thousands of troops. Neither Seoul’s Defence Ministry nor its Joint Chiefs of Staff commented on the exact number that would be involved.
While the US and South Korea describe their exercises as defensive, Ulchi Freedom Shield will almost surely draw an angry reaction from North Korea, which describes all allied training exercises as invasion rehearsals and has used them to justify its nuclear weapons and missiles development.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Defence Ministry said that the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise “normalises the South Korea-US combined exercises and field training, [contributing] to the rebuilding of the South Korea-US alliance and the combined defence posture.”
Before they were shelved or downsized in recent years to create space for diplomacy with Pyongyang and because of Covid-19 concerns, the US and South Korea held major joint exercises every spring and summer in the East Asian nation.
The spring ones had been highlighted by live-fire drills involving a broad range of land, air and sea assets and usually involved around 10,000 American and 200,000 Korean troops.
Additional reporting by Associated Press