Japan, South Korea, and the US held a joint naval missile defence exercise to counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats, South Korea’s navy said.
The drill on Sunday was conducted in international waters between South Korea and Japan and brought together destroyers equipped with Aegis radar systems from the three countries, it further said.
A naval officer said the exercise focused on practising procedures to detect and track a computer-simulated ballistic target and share related information.
On Wednesday, North Korea fired its latest Hwasong-18 missile, which Pyongyang describes as the core of its nuclear strike force, off its east coast in what it said was a “strong practical warning” to its adversaries.
The launch followed complaints from North Korea in recent days, accusing US spy planes of flying over its exclusive economic zone waters, condemning a recent visit to South Korea by a US nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, and promising to take steps in reaction.
The US, Japan, and South Korea denounced the ICBM launch, saying it constituted a “clear, flagrant violation” of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and posed “a grave threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond”.
