The United States, South Korea and Japan will, for the first time, jointly test their ability to detect and track North Korean missiles, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said on Monday.
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The drill will be held in the waters near Hawaii on June 28, said an official at the Seoul’s defense ministry, ahead of the US-led Rim of the Pacific naval exercises.
Moon Sang-gyun, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said that Seoul is partaking in the trilateral drill created to detect missile launches from North Korea and track their trajectories, “for more effective defense” against Pyongyang’s threats and in line with the three countries’ intelligence-sharing pact.
Washington has been trying to persuade the two countries to work more closely to better cope with China’s rising military power, as well as with the North Korean nuclear threat.
“It will involve one Aegis-level vessel from each country”, said the ministry, referring to warships that can shoot down enemy ballistic missiles.
A South Korean defense ministry source stressed that the exercise was not connected to possible South Korean involvement in USA -led missile defense.
“I call for bolstering exchanges in terms of sharing policy experiences and knowledge”, he said during his keynote speech at the first “Future Dialogue between the Parliaments of South Korea and Japan”.
Some South Korean analysts say Ri’s appointment could be part of a bid to revive long-stalled diplomacy and improve ties with the outside world after Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February led to worldwide criticism and tough sanctions.
The Korean Peninsula was divided into a US -backed South Korea and a Soviet-supported, socialist North Korea at the end of the Japanese occupation. Numerous imported components of the missile were items that are not covered by sanctions, as they have many other industrial uses. In particular, the two countries last month criticized an American proposal to deploy the land-based Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, in South Korea.
South Korea aims to develop its own missile defense system.
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U.S. officials have long warned Americans against traveling to North Korea, and on Monday it outlined a dozen specific actions that “whether done knowingly or unknowingly – have been treated as crimes” in an attempt to further caution travellers.
