The United States, South Korea and Japan have started joint naval drills off the Korean Peninsula in a move certain to anger North Korea, which fired its first missile over Japan in five years after similar exercises were held in 2022.
The two-day anti-submarine and rescue drills started Monday in international waters off South Korea’s Jeju Island and included vessels from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier group, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"This anti-submarine exercise is prepared to improve the response capabilities of the ROK, U.S. and Japan against North Korea’s growing underwater threats and submarine-launched ballistic missiles,” it said, referring to South Korea by its formal name.