US, South Korea, Japan maintain missile defence drill after North’s ICBM launch By Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.S., South Korea and Japan held a joint naval missile defence train on Sunday to counter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats, the South’s navy stated, days after the North launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

North Korea fired its newest Hwasong-18 missile, which Pyongyang describes because the core of its nuclear strike pressure, off the east coast on Wednesday in what it stated was a “sturdy sensible warning” to the adversaries.

Sunday’s trilateral drill was performed in worldwide waters between South Korea and Japan, bringing collectively destroyers geared up with Aegis radar methods from the three international locations, the navy stated.

Washington and its Asian allies have been working to enhance their information-sharing system on North Korea’s missiles. South Korea and Japan are independently linked to U.S. radar methods however not to one another’s.

The train geared toward mastering the allies’ response to a North Korean ballistic missile launch with a state of affairs that includes a digital goal, the army stated.

“We’ll successfully reply to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats with our army’s sturdy response system and the trilateral cooperation,” a South Korean Navy officer stated.

The North’s ICBM launch was denounced by the U.S., South Korea and Japan, although Pyongyang has rejected the condemnation, saying it was an train of its proper to self-defence.

The most recent launch adopted heated complaints from North Korea in current days, accusing American spy planes of flying over its unique financial zone waters, condemning a current go to to South Korea by an U.S. nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine and vowing to take steps in response.