Naval Drills Conducted by US, South Korea, and Japan

the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, left, sails with South Korean Navy's Aegis destroyerPhoto bySouth Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff

On Wednesday, the South Korean military announced that the US, South Korea, and Japan had carried out what could have been the largest coordinated naval drills ever in a display of force against North Korea, which is armed with nuclear weapons. The senior officials from the three countries were scheduled to gather in Seoul to address the escalating impasse with Pyongyang.

According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the training exercised in the waters off the island of Jeju, which included an American aircraft carrier, was conducted with the goals of enhancing the combined deterrent and response capabilities of the two nations in the face of North Korean nuclear, missile, and underwater threats, as well as training to prevent the illicit transport of WMD by sea. It was unclear from the report whether the training was in response to worries over North Korea's purported armaments deliveries to Russia, which Russia has used in its conflict with Ukraine.

Recent provocative actions by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, including missile tests and threats, have ratcheted up tensions in the area to levels not seen in years.

Kim Jong Un announced Monday before Pyongyang's rubber-stamp parliament that North Korea will no longer pursue its long-term goal of peaceful unification with South Korea and directed the rewriting of North Korea's constitution to remove any mention of shared statehood between the war-torn nations. Accusing South Koreans of being "top-class stooges" of the United States, he said they were fixated on confrontation and threatened to use nuclear weapons to destroy the South if it provoked the North.

A new solid-fuel intermediate-range missile tipped with a hypersonic payload was the subject of North Korea's first ballistic test of 2024, which the North had characterized in state media as a new weapon in its arsenal aimed at U.S. bases in Guam and Japan. The North's speech followed the test the next day.

After North Korea ramped up its tests, the US and its Asian partners increased the frequency and scope of their joint military drills. Drills using large U.S. military assets, such as aircraft carriers, long-range bombers, and nuclear-capable submarines, are becoming more common, and Kim has condemned the demonstrations as invasion rehearsals.

In an effort to end his isolation and form a unified front against the United States, Kim has been fortifying his position in the region by making his connections with Russia and China more public. These two neighboring countries are also embroiled in conflicts with the US.

Amid mounting international concern over alleged arms cooperation between the two nations, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui came to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. The goal of the meeting was to improve bilateral relations.

In a separate meeting, Choe met with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. The two men discussed, without specifying what, how to step up their "joint action over the regional and international issues, including the situation in the Korean Peninsula."

The trilateral naval drills, which began on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday, were attended by nine vessels, including the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and Aegis destroyers from both Japan and South Korea, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in South Korea. Approximately five ships participate in the drills each time. The military of South Korea has yet to corroborate reports in the media that this exercise was the biggest trilateral naval practice that the nation has ever conducted.

Prior to Thursday's trilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden's deputy special representative for North Korea, Jung Pak, South Korean nuclear envoy Kim Gunn met with Japanese counterpart Hiroyuki Namazu in Seoul. The purpose of the discussion was to coordinate the reaction to North Korea. South Korea's contested maritime boundary and North Korea's recent military activities, including a missile test on Sunday and artillery firings near the border, were discussed during Kim and Namazu's meeting, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry.

South Korea's ministry issued a statement expressing regret over North Korea's belligerent statements. The statement argued that North Korea's actions would only serve to enhance trilateral security cooperation with Washington, while also misrepresenting the source of increasing regional tensions and threatening war.

A "stern and unified" international response will be coordinated in response to any illicit military collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang, including the purported deliveries of North Korean missiles to Russia, as the envoys also reviewed Choe's visit to Russia and vowed, according to the ministry.

North Korea is allegedly supplying Russia with artillery and missiles to assist Russia prolong its invasion of Ukraine, according to the governments of the United States and South Korea. Russia and North Korea have both rejected the charge.

President Yoon Suk Yeol of conservative South Korea has been seeking stronger guarantees from the United States that it would defend its ally with nuclear weapons quickly and decisively in the case of a North Korean nuclear attack, even as he has expanded military cooperation with Washington and Tokyo.

Edited by Newsbreak Contributor Denys Shybinskiy