Seoul: The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise on Sunday in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s air force said.
The training held near the Korean Peninsula was to implement the three countries’ earlier agreement to increase defense cooperation and boost their joint response capabilities against North Korean threats, the air force said in a statement.
The drill involved a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber from the United States and fighter jets from
South Korea and Japan, the statement said.
South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in Asia, which together host about 80,000 American troops.
The three countries have occasionally held trilateral maritime drills, such as anti-submarine or missile defense exercises, but Sunday’s training marked the first time for them to perform a trilateral aerial drill.
In South Korea, expanding military drills with Japan is a sensitive issue, because many still harbor strong resentment against Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula.
But the North’s advancing nuclear program has pushed South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to move beyond historical disputes with Japan and beef up a trilateral security cooperation with the U.S.
and Japan.