SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Yonhap) - South Korea, the United States and Japan have jointly conducted naval drills in waters south of the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's recent launch of a hypersonic missile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday.
The joint exercise took place in southeastern waters off Jeju Island involving nine warships of the three nations, including the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, from Monday to Wednesday.
The South Korean Navy's Aegis combat system-equipped destroyers and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's Kongo-class destroyers joined the maritime exercise.
It began a day after North Korea test-fired a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile carrying a hypersonic warhead into the East Sea in its first missile launch this year.
"The exercise is aimed at bolstering the three nations' deterrence and response capabilities against North Korea's nuclear and missile threat as well as maritime threats," the JCS said in a release.
"It also focused on responding to maritime security threats, including transporting weapons of mass destruction, and enhancing the trilateral cooperation in establishing the rules-based international order," it added.
It marks the first trilateral drill held after Washington and its Asian allies launched a real-time sharing system for North Korea's missile launches and agreed to jointly establish a multiyear exercise plan to better counter Pyongyang's evolving threat.
On the first day of the exercise, JCS chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo visited the aircraft carrier to highlight the importance of the trilateral naval drill, vowing to step up the combined posture in accordance with the multiyear exercise plan, the JCS said.
The latest drill came amid heightened security concerns following the North's latest test-firing of a hypersonic missile, which is considered harder to detect and shoot down.
Hypersonic missiles fly at speeds of at least Mach 5, referring to five times the speed of sound, and are highly maneuverable and able to change course during flight.
A hypersonic weapon is among the list of high-tech weapons that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to develop at a party congress in 2021. The North test-fired a liquid-fuel hypersonic missile in January 2022.
Photo from Yonhap
