South Korea, US, Japan hold maritime drills involving aircraft carrier

South Korea, the US and Japan kicked off a trilateral naval exercise, involving an American aircraft carrier, in waters south of the Korean Peninsula on Monday, amid joint efforts to reinforce deterrence against growing North Korean threats, Seoul’s Defence Ministry said. The two-day anti-submarine and search-and-rescue exercise, featuring the USS Nimitz carrier, got under way in the international waters south of the southern island of Jeju, reports Yonhap News Agency. The joint maneuvers followed Pyongyang’s provocative acts, such as its unveiling of the Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warhead last week and the test of the underwater nuclear attack drone Haeil days earlier. “(The anti-submarine exercise) was arranged to enhance response capabilities of South Korea, the US and Japan against North Korea’s advancing underwater threats, including from a submarine-launched ballistic missile,” the Ministry said in a statement. The South deployed to the exercise its key destroyers, the Yulgok YiYi, Choe Yeong and Daejoyeong, as well as the Soyang combat support ship, while the US sent the carrier and two destroyers, USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Decatur. (IANS)

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