South Korea said on Friday it will hold joint military exercises with the United States and Japan in September, after Washington scaled back annual drills with Seoul in an apparent attempt to encourage dialogue with North Korea.
The three countries will conduct the North Korea-focused Freedom Edge exercise from September 7 to 11 in international waters east and south of South Korea’s Jeju Island, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, reports AFP.
“This exercise is a defensive drill conducted annually by the three countries to respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and safeguard peace and stability in the region,” the JCS said in a statement.
According to Seoul’s Yonhap news agency, the multi-domain exercise is expected to include maritime missile defence, air and air-defence drills, anti-submarine warfare and cyber defence.
Freedom Edge was first held in June 2024 following an agreement reached by the leaders of the three countries at their Camp David summit in 2023.
“This premier multi-domain exercise will continue to reinforce our shared values, enhance our shared interoperability and further strengthen our defense partnerships to ensure peace and stability throughout the Pacific,” Lt Cmdr Chloe Morgan, a spokesperson for the United States Pacific Command, said, according to Yonhap on Wednesday.
The announcement came after US President Donald Trump this month ordered the countries’ annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises to be shortened from 11 days to five.
Trump said at the time that the drills were “very insulting” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and described Kim as having been “very well behaved”, as Washington seeks to revive dialogue with Pyongyang.
South Korea said on Monday that the United States had cancelled another joint exercise, the biennial Ssangyong drills, because of constraints on force availability caused by the war with Iran.
Despite Trump’s overtures, North Korea has shown little sign of reciprocating. It has continued firing missiles and condemning the scaled-down drills, as well as Washington’s approval of arms sales to South Korea and plans to fund programmes documenting human rights abuses in North Korea.
