For the first time under President Donald Trump, the US military engaged in trilateral exercises with Japan and South Korea. The move will be viewed as a provocation by the DPRK, which views US-led war games in the region as preparation for regime change in Pyongyang.
On Thursday, US Indo-Pacific Command announced that it had wrapped up four days of military drills in the East China Sea with the two allies. This week’s war games “build upon the regular, increasingly complex trilateral cooperation of the three nations, including the January 2025 trilateral bomber escort flights, as the three nations continue integration across the Joint Force,” INDOPACOM explained in a press release.
It added, “This current activity builds on previous exercises like Freedom Edge and our continuing operations together, advancing doctrine as well as tactics, techniques and procedures among our combined forces.”
The games were led by the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group. The South Korean Defense Ministry said the latest drills were also meant to prepare for conflict with North Korea.
“The exercise focused on enhancing trilateral cooperation for South Korea, the US and Japan’s deterrence and response capabilities against North Korea’s nuclear, missile and underwater threats and […] bolstering their maritime security capacity,” the ministry said in a statement.
Historically, US war games alongside South Korea often provoke a military response from the North, including retaliatory drills and weapon tests. In response to the Vinson’s arrival in South Korea last month, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, said that Washington “is repeatedly committing provocative acts that ignore North Korea’s security concerns and worsen the situation.”
“The United States is openly demonstrating its intention to be the most hostile and confrontational toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea through these practical actions,” she added. “The root of the escalation of the situation on the Korean Peninsula clearly lies with the United States and its allies, who are further intensifying their military moves to transplant NATO’s infrastructure into the region and raise the level of war preparedness.”
Other than stoking tensions with Pyongyang, war games on the Korean Peninsula have had other consequences. In February, nearly 30 South Koreans were injured after the country’s warplanes accidentally bombed a civilian area during live-fire military drills with the US.
