Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold a trilateral military exercise next month as they seek to strengthen their response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, officials in Seoul said on Friday. The five-day Freedom Edge drill will begin on September 7 in waters off South Korea’s southern Jeju Island.
The move is likely to further reduce the chances of an early return to diplomacy between North Korea and the US. It comes a day after Pyongyang vowed retaliation over what it called US hostilities, and despite President Donald Trump’s recent decision to scale back a major US-South Korea military exercise in what appeared to be a goodwill gesture towards the North.
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South Korea’s military said Freedom Edge is defensive in nature and is meant to respond to North Korean nuclear and missile threats, while also promoting regional peace and stability. The US-South Korea-Japan exercise was launched in 2024 and is designed to make earlier drills more advanced, with simultaneous air and naval exercises aimed at improving joint ballistic missile defence, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities.
North Korea has previously condemned the trilateral drill as a “reckless show of strength” that reflects its rivals’ confrontational approach towards it. Pyongyang has also said the exercise shows a US intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia.
Last week, the US and South Korean militaries ended their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise six days earlier than planned after Trump said he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the drill, which North Korea sees as an invasion rehearsal. Trump cited what he described as a “good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea, however, rejected the move, saying that simply shortening the drill would not change its “provocative, aggressive nature”. It then launched about 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, in what appeared to be a response to the US-South Korean exercise. Pyongyang has also said it will not resume diplomacy with the US unless Washington drops its demand for North Korean denuclearisation as a precondition for talks.
Since his earlier diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019, Kim has expanded North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and strengthened ties with Russia over its war in Ukraine. Experts say that with greater leverage now, Kim would likely seek major US concessions, including international recognition of North Korea as a nuclear state and wide sanctions relief, in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear arsenal.
On Thursday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry accused the US of carrying out “a series of hostile moves” against the country, including a possible sale of air-to-air missiles and related equipment to South Korea. It said North Korea “will make a serious, immediate and powerful response to the hostile acts in different spheres”. Against that backdrop, the Freedom Edge drill is set to go ahead next month even as tensions remain high and diplomacy stays stalled.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
