SEOUL: The navies of South Korea, the United States and Japan held a series of trilateral anti-submarine exercises for the first time in five years on Friday, amid tensions over North Korea's series of missile tests.
The drills were held in international waters off the Korean peninsula's east coast, just a day after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles off its east coast and US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Seoul and the heavily fortified border between the two countries.
Thursday's test was the third such launch by the North in five days, which has fired an unprecedented number of missiles this year.
The exercises are intended to improve their capability to respond to increasing North Korean submarine threats, including its submarine-launched ballistic missiles SLBM at a time when it consistently poses nuclear and missile threats with a series of ballistic missile tests, the South Korean navy said in a statement.
The US navy said the drills will improve inter-operability and tactical and technical coordination between the three countries.
The exercises are expected to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific, amid tensions over China's actions in the Taiwan Strait.
Since 2017 the anti-submarine drills have not been conducted because the former South Korean government has tried to improve inter-Korean relations and facilitate denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington, which have stalled since 2019.