South Korea on Monday began a large-scale joint drill with Japan and the United States near South Korea’s Jeju Island, an exercise North Korea has denounced as “reckless show of strength.”
The training, named Freedom Edge, is designed to boost coordination among the three countries across air, sea, and cyberspace, according to South Korea’s Defence Ministry. Officials said the drills were necessary to address the North’s advancing missile and nuclear capabilities, reports AP/UNB.
The US Indo-Pacific Command described the manoeuvres as the most advanced trilateral defence operation yet, involving US Marine and Air Force aircraft alongside ballistic-missile and air-defense drills, medical evacuation, and maritime training. The exercise is set to continue until Friday.
Reacting through state media, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, condemned the drills. “The reckless show of strength made by them in real action in the vicinity of the DPRK, which is the wrong place, will inevitably bring bad results to themselves,” she said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
She also took aim at the US and South Korea over the Iron Mace tabletop exercise, reportedly running at the same time as Freedom Edge. The drill explores how to link Washington’s nuclear capabilities with South Korea’s conventional forces to strengthen deterrence, though neither military confirmed the details.
North Korea has a history of staging its own military displays or weapons launches in response to such joint manoeuvres.
Despite repeated offers from Washington and Seoul to reopen dialogue on disarmament, Pyongyang has ignored them, opting instead to expand ties with Moscow and Beijing.
Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Kim Jong Un has supplied Russia with troops and large quantities of weapons, including missiles and artillery.
He also travelled to China earlier this month, joining Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a major military parade, underlining his strategy of aligning more closely with powers at odds with the US.
