SEOUL: South Korea and the United States began their first combined naval exercise near the peninsula in five years on Monday, Sep 26 a day after Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile launch.
Washington is Seoul's key security ally and has around 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect it from the nuclear-armed North.
South Korea's hawkish president Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has pledged to beef up joint military exercises with the United States after years of failed diplomacy with North Korea under his predecessor.
The exercise was prepared to demonstrate the strong will of the South Korea-US alliance to respond to North Korean provocations, the South navy said in a statement.
More than 20 vessels and an assortment of aircraft will be involved in the four-day exercise on South Korea's east coast, which will conduct drills on anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare operations, tactical manoeuvres and other maritime operations, it added.
According to Kwak Kwang-sub, a senior South Korean naval officer, said that the exercise will improve the ability to conduct joint operations between the two countries.
The drills come after Pyongyang conducted another ballistic missile launch, the latest in its record-breaking blitz of weapons tests this year.
North Korea is under international sanctions over its programmes to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Seoul had detected signs that the North was about to launch a Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile SLBM the president's office said on Saturday, a weapon Pyongyang last tested in May.
The North has reaffirmed its nuclear law earlier this month, enshrining a first strike doctrine and vowing never to give up its nukes.
The allies have carried out joint exercises for a long time, but they insist they are purely defensive. North Korea sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.
The United States and South Korea held their biggest combined military drills last month - the resumption of large-scale training sessions that had been scaled back due to COVID 19 and the period of diplomacy with Pyongyang.