The US, South Korea and Japan participated in a ballistic missile defense exercise off Hawaii’s coast last week, the Pentagon said yesterday, reviving combined drills with an eye on North Korea and China.
It was the first time the three countries have held such drills since 2017, after relations between Seoul and Tokyo hit their lowest in years in 2019 amid renewed historical disputes dating to Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who took office in May, has vowed to improve relations with Japan and deepen the US alliance to better deter North Korea, including by expanding or resuming joint drills.
Photo: AP
The missile warning and ballistic missile search-and-tracking exercise took place from Monday to Sunday last week during the multinational Pacific Dragon drills, and demonstrated the three countries’ commitment to respond to challenges posed by North Korea, protect shared security and bolster the rules-based international order, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The participants shared tactical data link information in accordance with a trilateral information sharing agreement, the statement said.
The US military yesterday said that it had carried out a test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, delayed to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing during China’s show of force near Taiwan earlier this month.
China deployed scores of planes and fired live missiles in the Taiwan Strait after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the nation.
The test showed “the readiness of US nuclear forces and provides confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent,” a US military statement said.
The military said about 300 such tests had occurred before and it was not the result of any specific global event.
Meanwhile, a group of German Air Force fighter jets yesterday neared Singapore in a marathon bid to fly them about 12,800km from their home base to Southeast Asia in just 24 hours.
The exercise demonstrates the ability for a European nation to move air power quickly to the region.
German Federal Minister of Defence Christine Lambrecht told reporters that despite the war in Ukraine being a priority at the moment, the Eurofighter mission underscores that Asia has not been forgotten.
“We are at the side of all of those who stand for our values such as democracy, freedom and security, and are also willing to contribute,” she said as the aircraft took off from Neuburg, Germany, on Monday, the DPA news agency reported.
“Our focus at the moment is naturally on the eastern flank, for which Russia’s brutal war of aggression is to blame, but we also have to keep an eye on other regions,” Lambrecht said.
The six multirole Eurofighter jets involved in the current exercise were accompanied by four transport aircraft and three tankers. They were refueled in-air along the lengthy flight, and also made stops along the way for refueling, inspection and rotations of pilots.
Additional reporting by AP
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