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US, South Korea and Japan to conduct more joint drills to deter North Korea

The trilateral summit in Washington DC urged North Korea to stop its destabilising activities adding that Pyongyang's nuclear tests would be met with a strong response.

Reuters Archive

The South Korean, US and Japanese navies began their first anti-submarine drills in six months on Monday to boost their coordination against increasing North Korean missile threats, South Korea's military said.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have announced in a joint statement that they discussed the regularisation of missile defence and anti-submarine exercises to deter and respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

The announcement was made at the 13th Defence Trilateral Talks held in Washington DC to exchange assessments of the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and broader region, as well as to consult on concrete ways to deepen trilateral security cooperation, the joint statement said on Friday.

The representatives from the three countries "urged the DPRK to stop all destabilising activities immediately" and "reaffirmed that a DPRK nuclear test, if conducted, would be met with a strong and resolute response from the international community," the statement said, using North Korea's official name.

It follows North Korea's announcement on Friday that it had tested a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a development set to "radically promote" its forces, which experts said would facilitate missile launches with little warning.

South Korea's military had earlier said that a Thursday launch conducted by the North - which briefly triggered a seek shelter order in parts of Japan - was likely a new type of ballistic missile.

Washington and Seoul, as well as Tokyo, have ramped up defence cooperation in response, staging joint military exercises with advanced stealth jets and high-profile US strategic assets.

North Korea views such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and described them as "frantic" drills "simulating an all-out war against" Pyongyang.