Japan, the US and South Korea are to hold two days of missile-tracking drills starting today, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force said, as tensions rise in the region over North Korea’s weapons programs.
The US and South Korea last week conducted large-scale military drills, which the North said made the outbreak of war “an established fact.”
North Korea has fired missiles over Japan as it pursues nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of UN sanctions and international condemnation.
On Nov. 29, it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, which it said was its most advanced yet, capable of reaching the mainland US.
This week’s exercises are to be the sixth drill sharing information in tracking ballistic missiles among the three nations, the defense force said.
It did not say whether the US’ controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system would be involved.
The installation of the system in South Korea has angered China, which fears its powerful radar could look deep into China and threaten its security.
North Korea’s missile test last month prompted a US warning that the North’s leadership would be “utterly destroyed” if war were to break out.
The Pentagon has mounted repeated shows of force after North Korean tests.
The US has also pressured China and other nations to cut trade and diplomatic ties with North Korea as part of international efforts to dry up Pyongyang’s illegal cash flows that could fund its weapons programs.
South Korea yesterday said it would impose new unilateral sanctions on 20 institutions and a dozen individuals in North Korea, barring any financial transactions between those sanctioned and any South Koreans.
“This unilateral sanction will prevent illegal funds flowing to North Korea and contribute to reinforce international communities’ sanctions against North Korea,” the South Korean Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
The move is largely symbolic, as trade and financial exchanges between the two Koreas have been barred since May 2010, following the torpedoing of a South Korean warship, which the North denied.
North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea, Japan and the US, and says its weapons programs are necessary to counter US aggression.
The US stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-to-1953 Korean War.
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