Photo courtesy of Anadolu
North Korea warned Monday that it could take countermeasures after the United States, South Korea and Japan began a five-day military exercise involving operations across air, sea and cyber domains.
The latest Freedom Edge exercise opened at Yokota Air Base in Japan and is scheduled to continue through Friday, according to the US Pacific Command. Activities are being conducted at military facilities in Japan and in international waters and airspace south of South Korea.
The trilateral training includes integrated air and missile defense and is designed to improve coordination among the three countries’ forces during joint operations.
South Korea maintained that the drills were defensive and intended to strengthen deterrence and readiness against North Korea’s expanding nuclear and missile capabilities.
Pyongyang rejected that characterization. In a Defense Ministry statement carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency, it accused Washington and its allies of increasing the risk of military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korean Defense Minister Kim Song Ji warned that the participating countries could face consequences over the exercises. Pyongyang also reiterated that it would maintain a hard-line response to what it considers hostile US policy.
The exercise comes weeks after US President Donald Trump said he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to substantially scale back separate bilateral exercises between Washington and Seoul. Trump cited their cost and his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump had described those planned bilateral drills as sending an inappropriate and hostile signal to Pyongyang. The latest trilateral exercise, however, proceeded amid persistent tensions over North Korea’s weapons programs and the growing security cooperation among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.